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POEMS. 



BY 



VIOLET. FANE. ^ f^ j.^ ^. .J±^ 

INCLUDING 

CONSTANCE'S FATE," "DAWN TO NOON," 
ETC., KTC. 



» Dearest I if we had never met, 

Happier, perchance, had been my f atQ, 
Maybe the teardrop^ would have wet 
My cheek less often than of late. 

Yet would I die, if near thy heart 

I could but breathe my last fond vow. 

And kiss away on thy dear lips 
The life I do not value now V* 



MS; 



NEW YORK 

JV. Dillingham, Publisher, 

Successor to G. W. Carleton & Co. 

LONDON : S. LOW, SON & CO. 
MDCCCLXXXVn. 






rn 



I 



t^ PART I. 

X 

. o 

"Alas, that love should' be a blight and snare, 
^ To those who seek all sympathies in one ! " 

^i^ Shelley, 



This is not living, tho' I move and breathe, 
Ah, is there nothing better in the world ? 
I love to see the lily's cup unfurl'd 
To greet the sun, — I love the lake beneath 
And all the beauty of these barren days, 
But is there nothing better ? As I gaze 
I seem to dream a mad unmeaning dream 
About some fairy thing I have not known, 
Sigh on, wild winds ! your everlasting moan 
Haunts me in summer whilst the thrushes sing 
And ev*ry day in ev'ry year, the ring 
Of somethmg sad seems floating on the air, 
I hear it sighing round me ev'rywhere. 
And yet I hope and wait, whilst still I seem 
As tho* my soul were drifting dcwn a stream 
To meet some unknown, unexpected thing. 



CONSTANCE'S FATE. 



** This is the place. Stand still,* my steed. 
Let me review the scene, 
And summon from the shadowy past 
The forms that once have been." 

Longfellow. 

«« And on that cheek, and o'er that brow, 
So soft, so calni, yet eloquent, 
The smiles that win, the tints that glow, 

But tell of days in goodness spent, 
A mind at peace with all below, 
A heart whose love is innocent." 

Byron. 



I. 

[HERE, in yon gabled house amongst the oaks 
Which shut it off from this, the highway road 
That skirts the park towards the village side, 
They used to dwell together ; he was old, 




10 Constance's Fate ; 

And she, his wife, a very child in looks, — 
Her woman's soul, as yet an unfledg'd thing 
Seem'd waiting almost wearily for wings. — 
Most dutiful, and kind, and seeming gay 
She moved about, the sunbeam of the house, 
But like a temp'rate sunbeam, such as here ^ 
Warms us in England ; she knew no extremes 
Of passionate grief or boisterous merriment 
Such as so often stormily unite 
In the nntutor'd natures of the young, — 
It was as tho' the day she wore the ring 
And took the name of him, her wither* d lord, 
She had put by her youth with some old dress 
And left it by mistake in her past home 
Amongst her toys. She did not know the world 
This orphan daughter of a ruin'd man, 
Whose only friends had been the birds and flowers, 
She only knew what they would have her know 
Who taught her as they would, and only read 
As" they would have her read, and then at length 
The guardian who had guarded her from far 
(One she had never seen), plann'd out her life 
And when the question of her marriage rose 
Clench'd i' at once because Sir John was rich. 



ory Denzil Place, il 

And then it was a lifeless life began, 

For Constance (thus it was that she was named), 

To her not seeming so, who had not liv'd 

As yet but for her dolls and lesson-books — 

To be the mistress of the grandest house 

For many miles, to fuss about the poor, 

To teach the villagers, to dress and dine, 

And meet the same dull neighbours ev'ry night — 

This was her life ; to London now and then, 

But only for a time, for to Sir John 

The air seem'd echoing with a dragon's hiss, — 

The Hydra-headed monster call'd "Reform" 

That met him as he threaded thro' the streets 

And seem'd to glare defiance as he pass'd — 

His blear, distorting, ultra-Tory eye 

Saw danger in a thousand harmless things 

Unfear'd by Constance, to whom all seem'd noise 

And hurry and excitement and fatigue, — 

The world seem'd rushing to some hidden goal, — 

All went so fast, and ere she ceased to stare 

They were at home and life dragg'd on again. 

The neighbours 'round her all led dreary lives 
Yet did not know it ; stagnant tedious hours 



12 Constance' s Fate ; 

Crawl'd from the rising to the setting sun ; — 

Such email ambitions, such a narrow creed 

All held, and yet, withal, self-satisfied. 

Each saw the mote within his brother's eye 

As thro* a microscope, and hailing it 

With joy, proclaim' d it to the little world 

Of waiting Pharisees, whose open mouths 

Could mutter other things besides their pra/rs. 

Amongst these mouldy human vegetables 

Constance rais'd up her head and seem'd a rose, 

And when compared with their' s, she deem'd her home 

A garden, for not only did they live 

Their dull, respectable and tedious lives 

Apart from thoughts of Beauty, Art, or Love, 

But many liv'd them too in enmity 

One with another ; many too, were poor, 

And liv*d in dwellings desolate and damp, 

Empty of all save the provincial pride 

Of Squire and Squiress ; others too, were ill, 

For sometimes to the village where they liv'd 

Came fevers ; — from the chast'ning hand of God, 

(So said Sir John, altho* a meddling man 

Who came from London, made him build anew 

Some cottages he thought were good enough 



or, Denzil Place, 13 

Foi such as had been born and bred in them : 

And tho' this meddling man had also said 

The fever had not been if good Sir John 

Had mov'd more with the times). — Bat what of thia ? 

Some infidels will always see a cause — 

A cause of bricks and mortar, in the curse 

Sent down by God upon our sinful race ! 

(So said the parson, and advised a pray'r, 

But thought the drainage should be left alone, 

As heretofore ;) and so they pray'd and pray'd, 

And drank the water of polluted wells, 

Whilst on the fever raged, and had its course ; 

Then, strange to say, abated ; many homes 

Made desolate, and in the village church 

Were many mourning forms, and Constance, sad 

And humbled, felt ashamed of being well. 

Yet thank' d her God the fever spared her home. 

So, looking not to those whose lives were bright- 
Fairer than her's, she look'd around and saw 
How sad life was for many ; thus she made 
Her's seem the best ; — so free, she thought, from toil, 
Exempt from pain and squalor, affluent, 
And deck'd around with many pleasant things — 



14 Constaitce^ s Fate ; 

The woods, the lake, the cheerful summer-room, 
The careless moments, — nothing going wrong, — 
This calmly negative and passive life 
Seem'd good to her, and so the days went by. 

To Constance had been born a seeming son 
Without the torture of the "pains of hell" 
(As saith the pray'r-book), unto him she clung 
This childless second mother, young and fair ; 
Roland his name ; he was the child of one 
Who might, maybe, have seem'd a rival now 
To Constance, had she lov'd kind old Sir John 
With that unjust, impassion'd jealousy 
Which reaches from the Present to the Past, — 
His dead first wife had died before the boy 
Had learnt her face, and Constance was to him 
Playmate, and friend, and mother all in one. 

To her he was the only link that bound 

Her life to what was gay, and fresh, and free 

From dull restraint ; a dear excuse for youth 

And secret romping ; he was champion, friend, 

And little lover, jealous, wayward, fond. 

And brooking no control save from her hand. — 



or^ De?tzil Place. 15 

" Oh, had he been my son," she often thought, 
" I could not love him more than now I do." 
(Thus oft these self-anointed mothers speak, 
With such a tender tremor in their voice, 
They almost think their foolish words are true !) 

Often in summer days these two would go 
And gather cowslips in the dewy fields 
Before the hay was mown. The cuckoo -flow'r 
Here rais'd her fragile head, and here and there 
With joyous cry, the happy child would hail 
The rarer blossom of the orchis, prim 
And purple, with its spotted snake-like leaves. 
As the cool meadow sloped towards the lake. 
The grass grew rank and tall and bulrushy, 
And giant buttercups and pigmy frogs. 
And all the wondrous sprawling water-flies, 
Made little Roland clap his hands in glee — 
Here was a boat, wherein the youthful friends 
Would row at eventide, and watch the sun 
Sink down behind the western woodland ridge ; 
Then all the water grew a pink surprise 
To Roland — pink at first, then pale and wan 
And yellow as the primroses, then white, 



1 6 Const aftce^s Fate ; 

A shining, dazzling, oval mirror, set 

In the dim, dark'ning purple of the night. 

Sir John, meanwhile, was busy at the town, — 

The nearest town, dispensing justice there, 

Or corresponding in his library 

With some one of the friends who lagged behind 

The wheels of Progress. " This and this was good, 

** But that was dangerous, and might do harm — 

"It might do good, but good would come in time, 

" No need to hurry it ; — the poor man's hfe 

*' Was happier and calmer when his mind 

*' Look'd not beyond the clods from whence he sprung; 

*' Why, let him plough, and thresh, and sow and reap, 

" And let the better people of the world 

** Trouble their wiser heads about his weal." 

This was the usual strain in which he wrote 

To those in London who were then in power ; 

** A useful county man," they said of him, 

" Not brilliant, — taking people by the ear, 

** But staunch, and true, and English to the bone ! " 

Of him they spoke the truth, for he was true 
And honest in that most dishonest cause — 



oVy Denzil Place. 17 

The war against the liberty of man, — 

The war against the liberty of thought, — 

The war against the poor the rich have made,— 

The temporising for the little while 

During the which God holds responsible 

The living man, then after " Come what may I 

*' So long as all the evils that ensue 

*' Come not in this, my time, it matters not, 

** Starvation comes but once, — let well alone 1 " 

This was his argument, could he have look'd 

Into the selfish secrets of his soul ; 

But being kind and just in smaller things, 

His very self suspected not himself 

Of holding other than a party creed 

Respectable and fair ; if to himself 

And those like him most fair, what matter then ? 

" Each for himself ! He was an Englishman " 

To church together on the Sabbath morn 
Constance and Roland used to wend their way, 
All thro' the deeply-rutted Sussex ianes. 
And o'er the fields, whilst on his sturdy cob, 
Sir John would jog along the highway road. 
In Constance had been born a passionate love 



1 8 Constances Fate ; 

Of Nature, ali that was not made by man 

Seem'd sacred, beautiful, and good to see. 

Thus, tho' a Christian, in her gentle breast 

Some unsuspected germ of Pantheism 

Lay dormant ; much the easiest gate to Heav'n 

Seem'd to be thro' the lovely works of God — 

The flow'rs — the trees ; she often felt in church 

How good it would have been to worship there 

Amongst the oaks, as once the Druids did. 

With nothing roofing off the blue of Heav'n, 

And nothing interfering to distract 

The heart from God ! Here, in the mouldy church, 

So many sights arrested her young mind. 

Seeming to drag it back again to earth, 

And oftentimes she rais'd her timid eyes 

To see the neighbours enter, one by one. 

" And who is that ? " or " Why is she in black ? " 

" Oh, yes, I know, the son who was at school ! " 

" She is in mourning for his grandmother ; 

*' And that's the Captain, who is going to wed 

" With Helen." Often worldly thoughts like these 

Constance would try to check, but still they came ; 

Then there were sadder thoughts, — above the pew 

The mildew'd hatchments of her husband's race 



oVy Denzil Place, 19 

Hung in a gloomy row upon the wall, 

The one that hung over the entrance hall 

The year that' little Roland's mother died, 

Eight years ago, when she was only twelve, 

(Roland was eight years old,) she saw it then 

And ask'd her maid the reason it was there, 

That painted piebald sign-board, and half thought 

That Farleigh Court had turn'd into an inn. 

" Some day," poor Constance thought, " I too must die 

" And lie forgotten, nothing will be left 

**To make these simple peasants think of me 

** Save some such dismal diamond on the wall 

" Of this old church ! My side will be in black 

" With three poor greyhounds madly rushing on, 

*'Ah, rushing whither? But Death comes to all 

" And Life is very often very sad ! " 

Sometimes they skirted Geoffrey Denzil's park 
(Their absent nearest neighbour, then abroad. 
Unknown as yet to Constance, tho' Sir John 
Had been his guardian when he was a boy, 
'i'hei; fathers being kinsmen). From the wall 
1 hat fenced it round, the ivy-tresses hung, 
And served to help young Roland when he climb'd 



20 Coftsta7ice's Fate ; 

Follow'd by Constance, into Denzil park, 

There would they wander, for the tangled s'nade 

Unthinn'd for many years, possessed a charm 

For her young heart she scarce could understand, 

The gnarled limbs of those neglected trees 

Seem'd weirdly twisting into human shapes, 

And nowhere did the ferns and mosses grow 

In such luxuriance ; the rooks, too, built 

Whole cities, she could scarcely call them nests, 

And Roland once had said, on seeing them. 

He thought the weight of them must make the heads 

Of the poor heavy-laden fir-trees ache-^— 

They often waded ankle-deep in leaves 

Scatter'd by many winters ; — here the air 

Seem'd heavy with the Past, from man to leafi 

But by and bye the tangled thicket ceased, 

And evergreens, and winding gravel walks 

(Untended now) led to the sloping lawn — 

Quaint shapes of nymph and satyr guarded it, 

And further on, a gate of filigree 

Sided by Denzil dragons, open'd full 

On the deserted terrace. Here and there 

Forming the centre of a garden bed, 

A yew-tree (pointed once, and duly trimm'd 



or, DenrAl Place, 21 

As are the toy-trees of a Noah's x\rk,) 

Uprear'd its head, all ragged and unshorn, 

And seem'd to show the garden's plan had been 

Italian. With doors and windows barr'd, 

Sometimes the trespassers would peep and mark 

The silent, low, Elizabethan house 

Behind the bowling-green ; thro' screening boughs 

They often watch' d its only 'sign of life — 

The kitchen chimney's faint blue smoke, that cmi'd 

Over the cedars when the wind was east. 

One day (it was a Friday) they were thus 

Roaming about, and playing hide and seek, 

Spring-time was near, and all the noisy rooks 

Were busy with their nests, — the day was fine, 

And on the leafless trees the little buds 

Were green with tender promises of spring. 

The old house seemed to wear a brighter look, 

The shutters were un barr'd, an aged man, 

A gardener, was passing to and fro 

Rolling the gravel walks ; — some carpets hung 

Upon the garden-gate ;— the breath of life 

Seem'd once more waking with the budding spring ; 

A groom lode by them on a chestnut horse, 



22 Constance's Fate ; 

They look'd, and saw that ev'ry chimney smoked, 
And Constance said, " He must be coming horat/ 

They linger' d on till almost eventide, 

Constance, unconsciously, whilst Roland pla/d, 

Lost in her aimless, nameless, day-dreaming, 

And building many castles in the air. 

Her yeais, so few, so pure, so soon arrang'd 

Into this unemotional, dull shape, 

Not to be chang'd, had never known as yet 

Those violent alternate lights and shades 

Which many lives have weather'd, yet at times 

She seem'd to feel the spray of coming storms, 

Or bask beneath the rays of unknown suns. 

Whilst something softly whisper'd to her heart 

That life as yet had not begun for her — 

She seemed to wait, and often with a smile 

She woke to chide her foolish maiden-dreams 

And wonder'd how she ever could forget 

That she had been the wife of good Sir John 

For three whole years, and liv'd at b'arleigh Court. 

This day it was the trotting of a horse 

And all the cawing cloud of frighten'd rooks 



Off Denzil Place. 23 

That call'd the gentle dreamer back to life, — 

Roland had wander'd from her, and in sport 

She waited for him, hiding in the shade 

Of tangled laurels, near the avenue. 

So thickly grown was all the underwood, 

That Constance, dress' d in sombre color' d serge, 

Was lost and hidden ; as she waited there 

A rider on a chestnut horse pass'd by 

(The same she noticed ridden by a groom 

Two hours ago). From out her hiding-place 

She watch'd him pass her ;— tho' unseen till then 

His was a face she seem'd to know before, 

And she felt glad the mastei" had retiirn'd 

To light the fires, and let the sunshine in, 

To plant the terraces with glowing flow'rs, 

To sweep away the wither'd winter leaves. 

And bring the breath of life to Denzil Place. 

There are some scenes in this our little lite 
Which the uncertain light of memory 
Seems to illumine with more vivid glow 
Than all the rest, as in old banquet hails 
Dim with oak- panelling, ere candles beam, 
Some falling log will raise a transient flame 



24 Constance's Fate; 

To light one pictured face upon the wall 
When all the space around is indistinct, — 
Thus Constance, looking back upon her youth. 
At what she was, and what she was^not yet, 
In after years, saw Geoffrey Denzil ride 
As she had seen him first, thro' long arcades 
Of evergreens ; his head a little bow'd, 
As tho' to shun the overhanging leaves, 
And sitting somewhat forward on his horse, 
His eager profile as he pass'd her by — 
A little hawk-like — looking far to front, 
His boyish head, with all its cluster'd curls 
And trace of southern suns upon his cheek,— 
Then^ she had heard the trotting of the horse 
Upon the shingly English avenue 
Long after that young rider had pass'd by ; 
And after^ when so many more had pass'd 
(The horsemen who had left her on Life's road), 
She often seem'd to hear that trotting steed. 

Between this picture and one other one 
The intervening space was half obscured, 
But next, she saw a garden in the sun, 
A cypress, all festoon'd with Banksia rose, 



or, Densil Place, 25 

Emblem (she used to think) of Death and Love ; 
And then she saw herself, once more, as then 
Clinging to, Love and Life. 

These memories, 
As tho' two pictures, destin'd to be hung 
Always together, in the after days 
Seem'd painted on the panels of her heart; — 
They haunted her until that solemn hour 
Which comes to all, when, rudely torn aside, 
Or gently, as with tender hand, withdrawn. 
The curtain falls, which shrouded heretof(»re 
The picture we may look at only once. 



It came as I lay dreaming 

As it doth ever, 
Had I guess'd its subtle seeming 

Would I ever ? never, never ! 
But it came as I lay dreaming. 

So, as I lay dreaming, 

On the river 
Of my life went softly streaming, 

On its breast no little quiver 
Warn'd me as I lay there dreaming. 

Now I am no longer dreaming, 

Waking, quaking — 
Dazed, I watch the rushing, streamings 

Of the stormy waters breaking 
On the dream that I was dreaming. 

As a straw floats on th« gleaming, 

Dashing river. 
So my heart seems tossing, teeming 

With each impotent endeavour 
Drown'd amidst the torrents streaming. 

Ah, it came as I lay dreaming ! 

And for ever 
Must I listen to the screaming 

Of the storm-birds, and the river 
Dashing madly onwards, seeming 
Bent on bearing on its steaming 

Headlong course, each poor endeavour. 

Had I guess'd it, would I ever ... ? 
Never ! Never ! 
But it came as I lay dreaming I 




«« .A youth to whom was given 

So much of earth, so much of heaven, 
And such impetuous blood." 

Wordsworth. 



IL 



F Geoffrey Denzil never had return' d 

To Denzil Place,- if from the distant shores 
Where he had wander'd now for mary years 
His Enghsh heart had never long'd for home, 
Then, maybe, this, the simple history 
Of some few years in some few English lives 
Had ne'er been written, or had worse repaid 
Even than now, the pains to trace or read. 

When homeward bound, no thoughts of coming change, 
Of brighter days, or sadder, vex'd his mind 
Indifferent to Fate. With careless eyes 
He saw the white cliffs of his native land, 



30 Constance's Fate / 

His country ! Yet so stern and cold and grey 
This misty sole surviving mother seem'd 
After the smiling. violelt-scented lands 
Where he had linger' d, that he wonder'd why 
He had so yearn'd to see those shores again. 
He mused of home, and here a flash of pain 
And sad remembrance clouded o'er his brow, 
As he bethought him that no happy face 
Would beam to welcome him. Anon his thoughts 
Return' d in sadness to those bygone years 
When, with the mother who had been to him 
So much in youth, he had so lov'd the spot 
He now approach'd thus carelessly. As yet 
He had no thought of long abiding there, 
But he was wearied of perpetual change 
And exile, and he long'd to look again 
On the once lov'd and still familiar scenes 
Of his past boyhood ; thus upon the day 
Which look'd so bright to Constance in the woods, 
JUit which was dim and misty near the coast, 
Geoffrey returr.ed to lonely Denzil Place. 

He had determin'd that, as never more 
There was a chance of his remaining there 



or, Denzil Place, 31 

'Twere best. to let the house, for then at le£st 
There would be light and life within its walls, 
And the slow, certain fingers of decay 
Might be awhile arrested, so for this 
He came to England. 

But the days went by 
And still he linger'd on, and Denzil Place 
Remain'd unlet, nor did he lease the land 
As he had purpos'd ere he left the south. 
The days went by, the months, and then a year. 
And but that now and then he went to town, 
The lonely owner of those "mortgaged lands 
Stay'd on at Denzil. Once the Denzil race 
Had been amongst the wealthiest of squires ; 
But thro' misfortune or thro' ignorance, 
Or else thro' siding with the losing side 
Whenever there was anything to lose. 
Or else by being intellectually 
Too far ahead the age in which they liv'd, 
Or else by clinging to some yesterday 
In Politics, Religion, or Reform, 
And crawling thus too stubbornly behind,— 
Be it enough to say they had been poor 



32 Constance' s Fate ; 

Of later years ; elections, lawsuits, debts, 
Or earlier still, attainders, forfeits, dice, 
Had left the present Denzil with a third 
Of what had been his ancestors' estate ; 
And thus he had not wealth enough to tend 
With the magnificence it merited 
His rambling red-brick mansion ; — and again, 
As his extensive sylvan slopes and shades 
Yielded him nothing save the Beautiful, 
They but encumber'd him, and were it not 
For the old memories that haunted them, 
He long ago had sold them, to become 
Once more a rich and independent man. 

It was but seemly on returning home 
That he should pay a visit to Sir John, 
His former guardian, and his neighbour now ; 
They talk'd together over future plans. 
And much was said about the good to come 
Of letting Denzil ; but Sir John opined 
The good would never quite outweigh the ill- 
Geoffrey should do as other people did — 
Marry an heiress — live at Denzil Place — 
Keep open house — be prudent in some ways, 



or, Denzil Place, 33 

That without doubt, but dwell at his own home — 
Rear children there, and when at last he died, 
Be borne by his own grateful labourers 
To his own vault, in his own church, and there 
Be buried. 

Here a softly open'd door, 
A gentle rustling of a summer-dress, 
And Constance look'd once more upon the man 
She peep'd at fawn-like thro' the laurel leaves 
At Denzil ; Geoffrey thought he ne'er had seen 
In all his wanderings, a face so fair. 
So soul-inspired — scarce seeming of the earth, 
Because as yet enfolded, as the bud 
Of some uncertain flow'r, which, cactus- like, 
Might bear a flaunting bloom, passionate-hued, 
Dyed with the dye of kisses and of blood, 
Or else, with those frail blossoms of the spring, 
Destin'd, it might be, but to bloom a day 
And die the next,— thus she appear'd to him— 
So out of place amongst so much that seem'd 
So dreary, dull, prosaic, worm-eaten — 
Surprised out of his usual sadden'd calm. 
He learnt this was the wife Sir John had wed ; 
Three years ago he read it in the TimeSy 



34 Constajtces Fate ; 

For, tearing once, to light the cigarette 

Of an Italian princess, at Sienna, 

A scrap of paper, as it met the flame 

He, watching absently, read on the slip 

The name of what was once his parish church, 

Then read Sir John's, and guessing he was wed 

Tried to read on, but the devouring flame 

Had burnt up what had once been '^ Constance Leigli. 

He little cared, and turning with a smile 

He forthwith lit the fragrant cigarette 

Of the Italian princess. Now, a pang 

Shot thro' him as he thought how he. had burnt 

The name of one so good and beautiful 

As he believ'd that Constance was ; at once 

He knew she was the woman that she seem'd, 

He guess'd the honesty of those sweet eyes, 

The wild, fair face, so wise and yet so young, — 

So wise, because not knowing Wisdom's use 

Or Folly's ; ignorant alike of harm 

(Call'd by so harsh a name), yet wrapp'd in dreams 

Of an improbable future. Unconfess'd, 

E'en to himself, a hunger in her eyes 

Said to his wak'ning heart a thousand things. 

Sir John explain' d the subject they discuss'd — 



ory Denzil Place. 35 

** Denzil," he said, " is right well known to her, 
" She and my sQn have rambled thro' your woods 
" Many a time ; he talks of letting it — 
" What think you, Constance ? " 

" I am a poor man," 
Geoffrey explain'd with mock humility, 
** And beggars may not always have their choice." 
" Ah, Mr. Denzil, you seem rich to us," 
Said Constance, ** when we wander in your park 
'And see so much to envy and admire ! 
"Were Denzil mine, I could not let it go 
" Into the hands of strangers ; but of course 
" You will know best. The poor are all so glad 
"You have come home ; we often speak of you— 
" The poor and I together." 

Such a charm 
LurkM in the murmur'd music of her voice 
That Denzil did not pause to meditate 
Upon the wisdom of her simple words, 
But from that hour the weighty subject dropp'd 
And Geoffrey Denzil stay'd at Denzil Place. 

Then there began for Constance a new life — 
The dang'rous life of close companionship 



36 Constance' s Fate ; 

With one who is not bound by tie of blood 

To be a comrade ; hitherto her days 

Fled in contented converse with a child, 

Or else in list'ning, kindly tolerant 

To childish sayings from a dull old man, — 

Those days seem'd good, she miss'd no promised joy 

But now how empty had they seem'd to her 

Without this first-found sharer of her thoughts I 

Their very arguments (they dififer'd much 

Upon religion), roused her from her dream, 

And made of her a champion of the cross. 

The zealous advocate of Highest Heav'n, 

Her whole soul rose in arms to subjugate, 

As widi an angel's slashing two-edg'd sword. 

The paganism of her new-found friend. 

He held, indeed, unorthodox beliefs 
And unbeliefs, (nay, mostly unbeliefs, 
For these to him were easiest to hold,) 
He felt so much was wrong here on the earth- 
One giant fraud — a mutual " take in "— 
An all-pervading system of deceit — 
"Deluding one another" — this he saw, 
And being by nature honest, loyal, true, 



ory Denzil Place, 37 

He loath'd and bated all the canting lies 

That smirk' d and prosper' d wheresoe'er he turn'd \ 

Yet how to set things right he did not know, 

How to resuscitate to greener growdi 

The wither'd branches of a rotting tree — 

To lop them off, he thought, were surely best, 

So he had laid the axe unsparingly 

To many an offshoot of the Tree of Faith, 

But lacked the knowledge how to vitalize 

The wholesome after-growth of tree and fruit 

That he would raise instead. Without a creed. 

His childhood's innocent beliefs pull'd down. 

Stubborn, and seeming careless, (for in Care 

He told himself he never should beheve, 

Nothing was worth a care !) Pensive at times, 

Yet often kindling with a keener wit 

Than we dull islanders are wont to show, 

Inheriting a wild, impulsive heart, 

Yet deeming he had drill' d himself to feel 

No warmer than an iceberg ; with a face 

Which said more of the secrets of his soul 

Then he had wish'd maybe, could he have seen 

The tell-tale flash of light that sometimes beam'd 

From out his eager eyes ; — this was the man 



38 Constance' s Fate ; 

Who came to Constance in her loveless youth, 
And, well-a-day ! 'twas just about the tmie 
When she was wearied with Sir John's complaints 
Against the railways and Democracy, 
And when the extracts from the Tory press 
Ceased to amuse her ! When this stranger came 
His cold indifference to all these things 
Became a bond of union, and in time 
They smiled at tliem together. Then Sir John 
Treated young Geoffrey Denzil like a boy, 
Bore with his strange beliefs and unbeliefs. 
And patronized and gave him good advice ; 
And Constance, being married to Sir Jahn, 
Seem'd bound to be a sort of mentor too, 
And took with him a sweet maternal way, 
Tho' he was ten. years older than herself, 
And deem'd himself e'en older still, in heart. 

But, like so many men who roam the world 
In quest of happiness — in quest of love, 
His heart was almost virgin as a maid's, 
Untouch'd as yet by any searching fires. 
And knowing it untouch'd, he hence assumed 
That Love existed only in the minds 



or^ Denzil Place. ^ 

Ot »t.idmen and of poets ; — he had ne'er, 
E'en m the wild meridian of his youth, 
Misitaken Pleasure for her kinsman Love,— 
He wish'd it had been possible to join 
Their hands together, but as never yet 
His lips had tasted their united joys, 
He felt assured they ever walk'd apart. 
And Love l\ad always turn'd another way 
When he met Pleasure. To a mind like his, 
A fact observ'd some half a dozen times 
Became a deep conviction, and henceforth 
No contradiction seem'd admissible 
Unto a nature svvay'd by common sense, — 
So Love did not exist, (at least for /lim,) 
And Pleasure seem'd a ghastly haggard shape. 
When sad Experience had untied her mask. 
But still, if Love were not an empty name 
How sweet to love ! . . . . 

The golden summer days 
Seem'd to be fleeter than they were of old, 
It seem'd to Constance -never until now 
Had she e'er laugh'd, or sung, or felt amus'd, 
E'en Nature look'd more fair and beautiful 
As she and Denzil and the happy child 



40 Constance's Fate ; 

Pass'd over sun-lit lawn or grassy glade. 
But Constance, with her strict ideas of life, 
Had ne'er been satisfied to let the days 
Pass only in enjoyment ; duties, work, 
She had, and so had Mr. Denzil too, 
Upon whose fair estate so many poor 
And needy peasants look'd to him as God 
Who deals all mercies. He was kind and good, 
And he would always listen to her words, 
And take her gently-hazarded advice — 
Here was a humble means of doing good. 
And she was pledged to many a Denzil clown 
To do her best. 

" You may not be too poor," 
She said one day, " to do such little things 
" As they require. Your bailiff rais'd the rent 
" Of that thatch' d cottage near the Farleigh lodge, 
" The very day old Sands was paralyzed — 
" His son enlisted on the self- same day 
" To be a soldier — ^he had been his help 
" Like a right hand ; and then his daughter died 
** In child-bed (Do they ever come alone 
** Misfortunes ?). So, you see this poor old man 



or, Denzil Place. 41 

" Wlio scarce can lift one arm, must, half the day 

** Carry his daughter's child — his roof is gone, 

*' Or more than half, and lets in all the rain — 

** (He was a first-rate thatcher once, himself, 

" But now his arm. . . ). You said you meant to hunt 

" This Winter — ^you are rich enough for that, 

*' Would it not make you happier to think 

* You had one horse the less, and feel the while 

* Your tenants had more comfortable homes ? " 



Denzil smiled at the keen philanthropy 

Of this devoted Lady Bountiful ; 

But in about a week she saw old Sands 

Rent-free and roof d, and very nearly well. 

Sir John and Geoffrey often would dispute 

On foreign politics, and oft for hours 

She listen'd to discussions on the Pope — 

His government — " too lib'ral," said Sir John, 

" And afterwards see what became of it ! 

" A lesson it will be to other States, 

" And Kings, and Principalities, and Pow'rs ! 

"They were a people vain, hot-headed, weak — 

" And Pius rashly gave their heads the rein. 



42 Constance's Fate ; 

" Perhaps he saw the folly of his way.3 

" When from his windows in the Vatican 

" Surrounded by the signs of anarchy, 

*♦ He heard the ravings of the demagogues, 

" And all the * Viva Verdis' of the mob 

" Under their bloody flags of liberty ! " 

"But think," said Denzil, "how the masses groan !— 

"And how those men who live themselves at ease 

" Mourn for the suff rings of their fellow-men ! 

" And then to know that even were they well 

"Govern'd and cared for, educated, fed, 

" It would be only by some accident, 

" To lend a tyrant popularity — 

"To serve a purpose — whilst the only cure 

** For all their ills — the spirit of Reform 

" Is further off than Rome is now from here I 

" I often think of it for days — at times 

"It really is enough to turn one grey, 

"To think that human beings, with sight, smell, 

" Taste, hearing, sense, and long experience, 

" Are ignorant and helpless as the brutes 

" That graze in yonder meadows 1 " 

Then Sir John 
" See, Constance, now, how soon we all were doonVd 



or^ Denzil Place. 43 

* Once Geoffrey Denzil ruled us over here I 

" The poignard and stiletto ! sword and fire 1 

" And he may tremble, too, for Denzil Place; 

" Those long black-bearded gentlemen, his friends, 

** May use him as Mazzini fain would use 

" ^ II Re galafituojno^ when he's serv'd 

" His purpose like a puppet. As for him 

" (Victor Emmanuel), I dread indeed 

" For him and for the mischievous Cavour 

" The guillotine, — the fate of Louis Seize. 

*' Ah, those who love the cap of Liberty 

" Have never seen it worn ! My father once — ^* 

(And here an anecdote.) "-But," Denzil said: 

" When men arise, long smarting under ills, 

" They do not always act with self-control 

" And dignity ; they only feel their wrongs, 

** And have not leisure for those tender tears 

" The fortunate at home can shed at ease 

" Over the ills of others ! When a man 

"Like Ciceravacchio, in 'Forty-eight " 

"And who," ask'd Constance, in a timid voice, 
" Was Ciceravacchio, of whom you speak ? " 
" A patriot," said Denzil, eagerly — 
** And one who had the courage to declare 



44 Constance's Fate ; 

" Tlie sentiments he felt — a humble man, 

" Rising through zeal and courage — firm, self-made, 

** Mazzini-ite, a friend of Liberty, 

" And not asham'd to own himself her friend." 

But after Geoffrey left, Sir John explain'd : 

" Ciceravacchio was Mazzini's tool — 

•' He once sold forage in the streets of Rome — 

"A weak, vain, cruel, disaffected man, 

" Leagued with assassins." 

Constance sadly thought, 
"Alas, tho' so well-meaning and so brave, 
•* How 7vrong he seems in almost everything I " 
And tried henceforth to influence for good. 
In politics as well as piety, 
Her erring friend — she ventured thus at last, — 
" My husband says that those who think like you 
" Would ' slice all England into sandwiches ' — 
" A little piece for each, of field and copse — 
" Destroying all our beautiful old parks— 
"And that if one grew richer than the rest, 
" (As some will always grow thro' industry 
" And honest perseverance), then the men 
" Dwelling upon the neighb'ring strips of land 
«* Would rise and take his goods and burn his house 



ovy Deiizil Place. 45 

* He says, if your opinions gain the day, 
** He will be of the very first to go 
"To stake or scaffold for his principles — 
" And that in twenty minutes from the time 
-' ** When round about us here the banners wave 
" Of your ideal republic, you will meet 
*' A brutal mob, elated with success, 
*' Bearing my head, maybe, upon a pike ! 
"(How horrible !) He says the Pope is good 
" And Ferdinand the Second excellent — 
" A ' model sovereign ' — most merciful, 
" Sparing the very subjects who would rise 
" And sacrifice him for their selfish ends — 
" Why, when his faithful soldiers fired on them, 
" He call'd to them with pity 'do not fire ! 
" 'Make prisoners ; ' he said, *but do not shoot, 
** * Spare my deluded subjects ! ' And he says 
" That those three gentlemen who came to church 
** Were one and all red-hot Republicans ! 
'* (Ah, do be careful !) — members of a club 
'* Which governs by stilettos and by knives. 
" He says they did not go to church to pray, 
*' But that they only went to make their notes, 
" And see if our religion would be good 



4-6 Constance' s Fate ; 

" Should they succeed in driving out their own, 

" But then he also says (and so / think,) 

" That no religion will exist for long 

" When wicked men like these are once in pow'r." 

"I do not think so either," Denzil said, 

*' If by that sacred name you designate 

*^ A superstitious creed of terrorism, — 

*' But we must hope religion will improve 

" Along with knowledge and intelligence. 

" Those three black- bearded men were friends of mine j 

"Italians, it is true, and years ago 

" I was some time the guest of one of them. 

" Talking, last Saturday, around the fire, 

" Of England's customs, government, reforms, — 

" We pass'd to England's women ; I was vain, 

"And boasted of my lovely country-women, 

" And long'd to show how beautiful some were ; 

"And so I fear Sir John was partly right, 

" And that they did not go to church to pray, — 

" I fear they only went to look at you — 

" If to do this will earn for them the names 

" Of Red-Republicans or Carbonari, 

" I fear they all were reddest of the red." 

" But," Constance said (ignoring with a blush 



or, Denzil Place, 47 

This first decided compliment,) ** Sir John 

" Has also told me neither of the three 

** Dare show their faces on Italian soil." 

**Sir John is right," said Denzil, with a sigh, 

** Thanks to the godless narrow-mindedness 

" Of the oppressors of courageous hearts. 

•" Sir John's ideas," he added, with a sneer, 

"Are all so broad — so cosmopolitan — 

" Tell him he ought to be elected Pope, 

" And govern Rome." He did not know the cause, 

But somehow he felt angry with Sir John — 

Exasperated with his common-sense 

And stolid absence of enthusiasm'; 

And so he ventured on this little sneer 

At the opinions of his kind old friend. 

Constance oft mar veil' d much that one who held 

In such high reverence all greatest good, 

Honour, and truth, and wisdom, yet should drift, 

Anchorless, Christless, on life's stormy sea. 

It griev'd her much, and oft she pray'd to find 

Some spell to lure him to her gentler creed. 

She could have floor'd his sophistries with texts ; 

With any one but him she could have said : 

*' Look in 'Corinthians' (two,) and chapter ten, 



4^8 Constance' s Fate ; 

" Verse five, and drop this groundless argument ! " 

Or, " turn to * Kings ' (one,) chapter nine, verse six, 

" And prithee ever after hold thy peace ! " 

But starting from some heathen starting-point 

Unknown to her, it was as tho' he said : 

'' No * Kings' and no * Corinthians' for me V* 

The very honesty with which he own'd 

His infidelity, disarm'd and shock'd 

His faitliful friend — so well he unbelieiJ'dy 

She thought he surely would beUeve as well, 

As ardently, as earnestly, if once 

She could but draw him to the saving fold. 

" Or, all is false," he said, " or all is true, 
" If true, then let us live and die for it ; 
" If false, then let us cast away this creed, 
" However good, it cannot be the best, . 
" If based upon a long accepted lie. 
" But, if our work is Jiot the work of priests — 
" If the great God, indeed, could stoop so low — 
" If such a paltry plan to save us all, 
" Or such a cruel trap to get us damned, 
" Could please the high great God, then can he be 
* The God to whom I clasp'd my infant hands ? — 



or, Denzil Place, 49 

" The God my tender mother lov'd ? — the God 

** For whom the saints and martyrs dared to die ? 

** Oh, give me back my youth's fidelity, 

*' But give me also back my childhood's God! 

" Kind and forgiving Father ! from the clouds, 

** How did'st Thou seem to heave the pitying sigh 

" At my cut finger ! When my bullfinch died, 

** I thought of how He counted all my hairs 

" And all about the sparrows ! Now, alas ! 

** The caring for the individual — 

*' The sparing one mean unit 'special pain 

" Seems so averse to the great principle 

" Of abstract commonweal, methinks, that Heav'n 

" Could scarcely work a pamper' d emmet good 

" In this great ant-hill, without working ill 

** To many more ; just, but Republican, 

" His wrath must crush out Pestilence and Sin, 

" What matter if the swing of His strong arm 

" Strike down some good and whole amongst the rest ?" 

Then Constance answer'd, " Oh, it cannot be ! 
** I feel assured the Bible is the truth ! 
" It is the only comfort of the poor. 
"Think how the very poor and ignorant 
% 



5o Constance's Fate ; 

'* Have liv'd for many years upon its words ! 

" Then, what you say of Christianity, 

*• I pray that you may see things as they are— 

" /understand it all — /grasp it all ; 

" But even were its teachings too obscure, 

" You know that we are told we cannot knoiu. 

"■ ' All things with God are possible,' and then, 

" Think what a beautiful and tender creed ! — 

" Think of the little babe in manger laid — 

" The three wise men, all looking for the star — 

" (1 work'd them once in color'd Berlin wool : 

*'They all wore turbans — dress'd in Eastern dress — 

*' And in the distance was the hostelrie.) 

*' Ah, can you doubt ? (Her eyes were filled with tears,) 

" And then the Virgin, with her lovely face — 

" Oh, think upon the glory round that head ! 

*' How many painters lov'd to dwell on it ! — 

" Much greater men than you — wiser than you — 

" Yet they believed it all. Think, too, of those — 

" The martyrs — all the early Christian saints 

" Thrown to wild beasts ; then, Cranmer, it is true 

" He died in what I call the civil war 

*' Of Christianity — but still he died — 

** Died at the stake, and let his wrong right hand 



OTy Denzil Place. 51 

" Burn first, and said it had offended him. 

" Think of his faith ! — ah, how it must have hurt I " 

She added, shuddering^ and held her hand 

Against the light, and stroked it tenderly, 

Seeing before her only in her zeal 

Archbishop Cranmer's burnt apostate hand. 

Thus with her .gentle female arguments 

She strove to quench the heathen in his heart. 

He listen'd for the sake of her sweet voice, 

Which murmur'd on and on so childishly, 

(So thought he) yet his heart went out to meet 

The signs of her soft foolish-innocence. 

He felt the while as might some cruel hawk, 

Beneath the shadow of whose outspread wings 

A little bird is chirping her sweet song. 

For surely did he deem her child-like mind 

Would bend and yield to his, and those soft notes 

Become the echo of his stubborn thought ; — 

Feeling she was his prey, for what he would, 

He linger'd still in pity, teaching her, 

(He fondly deem'd) and stilling the desires 

That would have risen in his lawless heart 

Had his poor little pupil seemed more wise. 



52 Constance's Fate. 

Thus months pass'd by, and whilst the old man dosed 

In the long ev'nings, by the wintei fire, 

To listen to the sound theology 

Of one, the other's sad materialism, 

No guardian angel would have shed a tear, 

And e'en a crouching ^^ephistopheles 

Had scarcely dared to rub his hands in glee. 

Yet in those fire-lit ev'nings, all unknown 

To each as yet, the germ of bitter fruit 

Was sown. By both more sadly ev'ry night 

The soft "good night" was utter'd, when the foes 

After their wordy tournament, clasp'd hands. 

It seemed that Friendship, banish' d for awhile, 

Ruslrd with too sudden haste to her old place, 

For as these votaries of hostile creeds 

Parted reluctantly, (unguessed by one^) 

The Christian lov'd the Heathen, and the sinner 

Felt all his heart's blood warm towards the saint. 



** Give it me back ! " she cried and turned away, 
** And press'd her hands against her throbbing brow, 

** All that your robber-hand has day by day 

•' Torn from her breast who braved you until now — 

Give it me back t 

•* Give it me back — my heart that seem'd so free, 
*' My unsuspecting trust in all mankind^ 

**My fearlessness of changes that might be 
** And all my vanish'd peacefulness of mind — 

Give it me back I 

" Give it me back — the undreaded parting-hour — 
*' My careless hearing of your coming steed — 

** Give me the ready jest in hall and bow'r, 
** The easy welcome that I did not heed — 

Give it me back 1 

** Give it me back — the tranquil dreamless night, 
** The uneventful passing hours of day — 

** The morning sun that rose without delight, 
** Yet did not fade in bitterness away — 

Give it me back ! 

** Give it me back ! — alas, my words are vain I 
" Nay, — keep it all, I yield you all the rest — 

** I am your slave — ah, master, let me gain 
** Some echo of this love within my breast — 

Give it me back 1 *' 



•* There are secret workings in human affairs which over- 
rule all human contrivance, and counter-plot the wisest of our 
counsels, in so strange and unexpected a manner, as to cast a 
damp upon our best schemes and warmest endeavours/' 

Sterne. (Sermon XXXIX, ^ page 170.J 

** My loving arms have clasped him from the black hungry 
jaws of Death. 



** I saw the Grim Foe open wide his red-leafed book, but he 
wrote not therein the name of my brave love." 

{Adah Isaacs Menken. ) 



III. 



O those who own the kindling blood of youth 
I would say, " Watch and ward ! — beware. 
beware ! — 

T.ook from the topmost tow'r, like * Sister Ann,' 
But unlike her, 'tis not for coming friend 
That I would have you search with shaded eyes 




56 Constance's Fate ; 

Along the far horizon ; 'tis the foe, — 

The moral whirlwind I would have you fear I 



Yet how provide against events which steal 
Silent and snake-like on our quiet lives ? 
(As thieves at midnight-hour used once to creep, 
For now they rob by day.) — 

I would face Fire 
And Sword, and Love, more terrible than botli, 
Had I but time to buckle on my mail ; 
But often it has been as tho' the Fates 
Were prrss'd for time, and anxious to begin 
Their work of devastation ; or if time 
Is e'er vouchsafed to ponder, then, alas ! 
Our armour is mislaid, or want of wear 
Hath made it rusty and averse to clasp. 

Oh, for the peaceful lives we all might lead 
If some good angel would but make a sign 
At each approaching danger to the soul! 
But well-a-day ! temptations seem to creep 
All shod with silence, and it is as if 
In times of feudal warfare, long ago, 



or^Denzil Place, 57 

An enemy approach' d, conceal'd by night 

Towards the fort, whilst at the pc»stern gate 

The warder has not time to sound a blast 

Ere foemen revel in the citadel — 

Thus shamed, surprised, the poor beleaguered soul 

1 )ies or surrenders, mortified and maim'd ! 

'Twas thus with Constance, unexpected ills 
Seem'd crowding now upon her harmless life 
So calm before. Three quiet happy years 
Had pass'd away since Geoffrey Denzil first 
Return'd to England ; — they were chosen friends 
Constance and he, whilst as another son 
He seem'd to good Sir John, and to his boy 
An elder brother. 

One wild, wintry riight 
They sat at Farleigh round the blazing hearth, — 
Roland had gone to rest, and good Sir John 
Was sleeping in his chair. \ His sister Jane 
(A spinster, who had but that night arrived) 
Was knitting silently. From time to time 
Her eagle eyes, above her spectacles. 
Would glance to where two beautiful young heads 
Seem'd somewhat close together, bending o'er 

3* 



58 Constance's Fate ; 

Some plans of cottages and alms-houses. 
This sister of Sit John's was younger far 
Than was her brother — unlike him in face 
As in her nature. She had once been fair, 
Flatter'd and spoilt, and could not brook the thought 
Of growing old. Selfish and cold and proud 
(Maybe resulting from some shock receiv'd 
To what she may have " pleased to call " her heart), 
She now seemed turn'd to uncongenial ice, 
And Constance, who liked almost eVry one, 
Felt chill'd and frighten'd by her influence. 
She also seemed to know, as children do, 
(And dogs,) that she, this withering old maid, 
Had never wasted o'ermuch love on her; 
Nay, she had seen her letters to Sir John 
Dissuading him from wedding one so young. 
And each one filled with gloomy prophecies — 
This had been kind, (for Constance now and then " 
Had lately had misgivings of her own,) 
But then she knew no kindly motive lurk'd 
Beneath this good advice for him or her. 

Sir John had known his sister wish'd to pass 
Her days beneath his roof — to keep his house 



or, Denzil Place. 59 

And rule over his servants and his son, 

And blurted out, in his blunt, honest way, 

The same to Constance, to excuse the thought 

That there was aught of malice against her — 

But Constance had been happier to know 

It was some sentiment of enmity 

Which she might conquer, than to know the words 

Came from base motives of self-interest — 

And so she did not love Miss Jane L' Estrange, 

Who did not love her either. 

On this night 
There suddenly arose a cry of " fire ! " 
And shrieks and sobs, and sounds of hurrying feet — 
Geoffrey at once rush'd to the op'ning door, 
And thrusting all the frighten'd crowd aside, 
Sprang up the stair, whilst Constance from below 
Exclaim' d " Alas ! 'tis in the western wing 
*' Where Httle Roland sleeps ! oh, save his life V* 
" And Mr. Denzil !" Miss L'Estrange call'd out, 
Ere Geoffrey's active figure disappear' d — 
" I pray you, in the room that faces south— 
*' The blue front room- — my room — save all you can — 
" My Bible and my rings — my dressing-case — 
" My keys, my purse " — but here her voice was drowj^'d 



6o Constance s Fate ; 

By cries of frighten'd women, weights that fell, 

And sounds of coming footsteps from below, 

Hast'ning to succour those who still might be 

Alive, where there was such a chance of death. 

Then Miss L' Estrange begg'd Constance to be cahn 

*' An active boy would not be burnt in bed— 

*' He is upon the roof, and helping now 

" To quench the fire — or if, perchance, the smoke 

" Has hinder'd him from waking, 'tis a death 

*' More painless, probably, than I shall die — 

*' We, providentially, are safe enough, 

" Ere they can reach the place where now we stand 

*' The flames will yield ; and then the garden door 

'• Is close at hand. ('Tis well that all my things 

" Are not arrived ; — that blunder I deplored 

" Was for the best.) Pray conquer your alarm ! " 

Sir John awoke and cried " God bless my soul ! " 

And cough'd and sneezed,and then rang all the bells — 

The screaming maid-servants press'd down the stairs. 

Hurling before them all their worldly goods 

As yet unburnt, and which they hoped to save — 

For they had all been gossiping below, 

Whilst undisturbed the lire was burning on. 



or^ Denzil Place. 6 1 

Till, going up to bed, with many a joke 
Made by tlie way, and full of " cakes and ale," 
They met the smoke, and heard the crackling beams 
And all their laughter turned to piercing cries. 

Constance stood clinging to the crowded stair ; 
They jostled past her, rough and toil-stain'd men, 
Who came from out the village, having seen 
The flames that shot up over Farleigh Court, — 
Two sweeps, as black as demons, whom she met, 
She seized by each of their hard sooty hands, 
And pray'd they would save little Roland's life 
" And Mr. Denzil's."— For a horrid dread 
Gnaw'd at her heart, new-born and terrible — 
It was the thought that Geoffrey,- brave and strong, 
Would rush to meet his doom, urged on, maybe, 
^y those last parting words she hurled at him, 
Without a seeming care about his life. 
In utter helplessness she waited long. 
Feeling each moment like a creeping age 
And list'ning for the voices that she lov'd — 
At last each pulse seem'd silent, and the fear 
That she might swoon, or show a woman's heart 
When she would fain be braver than a man. 



62 Constances Fate ; 

Urged her to stagger to an open door 

Which led down narrow terraced steps of stone 

Into the garden. 

There, she saw the flames 
Lighting the startled landscape far and near ; 
The angry tempest blew them to the East, 
Where, streaming like the tongues of hungry fiends, 
They seem'd to hurry on to meet the moon. 
Which, calm and still, beyond the glare of red, 
Watch' d with her placid eye the raging fire. 



Anon, a cloud of smoke, and flames that seem'd 
Half quench' d, fill'd Constance with a ray of hope, 
Then with a fiercer glare, higher up in heav'n 
Again they darted, to be driv'n once more 
Towards the kingdom of the quiet moon. 



" The roof has fall'n ! " anon she heard them cry, 

And dreading to behold the fiery foe, 

Fed with fresh food, spring forth in horrid glee, 

She hasten' d in, as pallid as the forms 

Of marble on the narrow terraced stair. 



oVy Deftzil Place. 63 

Sir John, with happy smile and beaming eye, 

Met her. and grasp'd her hands and kissed her cheek, 

Crying,'' He's safe ! he's safe ! " But Constance, stunn'd 

And looking like a disembodied ghost, 

Ask'd feebly, " Who ? Where is he ? Which of them ? 

To which Sir John replied, " The boy ! the boy ! " 

And Roland with his happy childish face 

A little pale, ran to the open arms 

Which Constance stretch' d towards him absently. 

A horrid fear which clutch'd her by the throat 

Threaten' d to suffocate her, till at last 

She hurried forward, and as one inspired, 

Said, in a firm authoritative voice : 

'■' All are not saved, for Mr. Denzil still 

" May be amongst the fiercest of the flames — 

" We will reward the one who rescues him." 

"Aye, that we will — he saved my Roland's life !" 

Sir John exclaimed, on which the soldier Sands 

(The son of that old man whom Constance once 

Had so befriended, and who for awhile 

Had sought his native village) hearing her, 

Leap'd up the stair, and hasten'd to the spot 

Where the now half-extinguish'd fire had raged, 

Constance was following, when kind Sir John 



64 Constance^ s Fate ; 

Restrain'd her, saying, " No, you must not go, 
" The falling floors and ceilings are not safe 
"Altho' the fire is conquer'd ; then, alas, 
" He may be burnt or crush' d, or even worse,— 
" You must not go." 

So, looking as for Life, 
So, praying, could her lips have form'd a pray'r, 
So hoping, could her heart have dared to hope, 
And longing, with a longing terrible 
Intense and breathless ; thus she waited on. 

The moments pass'd, then nearly half an hour. 
When at the summit of the winding stair 
She saw two men, one was the soldier Sands — 
The other was — not Denzil ; — in their arms 
They carried something covered with a cloak, 
Cumbersome, oblong, difficult to guide 
Adown the stair. 

Then Constance guess'd the worst, 
And all the ills she had not feared before 
Rushed to her heart — the guilty, hopeless truth !— 
Then there arose before her anguished mind 
The vision of a future, desolate, — 



or, Denzil Place. 65 

The dim vast desert of an empty world 
Mapjj'd out in ghastly colours ; and Sir John, 
Thinking to spare her tender heart the shock 
It needs must feel at any horrid sight 
Of Death or mutilation, took her hand 
And led her gently to the morning-room. 



But Geoffrey Denzil, though he scarcely breathed, 
Was yet alive — ^beneath some fallen beams 
And crumbled brick -work, blacken' d by the smoke 
And drenched with water, they at first had deem'd 
He had been crushed, for scarcely could they tell 
What aspect he would wear when they had freed 
His almost buried form. One broken arm 
Hung limp and useless ; he was stunned, they saw 
By a thick beam which struck him on the brow, 
But f till he lived ; — they tended him with care, 
Washed from his cheek the trace of smoke and blood, 
And saw that it was pale, but still the face 
Of one who liv'd. The doctor set his arm. 
And watch'd him long, and said some hopeful words. 
Thus Constance saw him, when, with new-found strength, 
Hearing he liv'd, with Roland by her side, 
% 



66 Constance's Fate ^ 

She asked for tidings, longing once again 
To see his face ere it might be too late. 

The doctor left his chair beside the bed 
And gave it her, then whispered to the boy 
'Twere better he should go away, for fear 
So many present might work Denzil harm, 
Should he awake to reason suddenly — 
" I hope it may be well," he gravely said, 
" But for a day or two we cannot tell." 
Then, saying that if Constance would remain, 
There were some few directions he would give 
About his patient's treatment, for awhile 
He left the room, and Constance sat alone 
Beside the pale and still unconscious form 
Of him she lov'd. 

Then all her aching heart 
Seem'd fill'd with some new desperate resolve 
Once — once, before he died, to tell him all — 
'Twas all so strange, so terrible, so new — 
There lay the man she only knew she lov'd 
Some few short hours ago — ^how soon to die ! 
How short and sad the stay Love made with her! 
How dt^ar he was to her ! How dear those eves 



or^ Denzil Place, 6j 

That could not see, or even feel, the tears 

Which fell from her's uncheck'd ! — the effort made 

To see him whilst he liv'd, had not survived 

The ghastly dread his death-like look inspired — 

** Oh, God, have mercy ! Hear the pray'r, I pray,— 

*' Give me his life ! " She did not pause to think 

If this, her love, was sinful, or against 

The laws that God or man has made for man — 

She could not think — her wild solicitude 

For hijji — for what slie felt was life to her, 

Made her forget and trample in the dust 

All save this one absorbing madd'ning pain. 

She thought she would not care, so he should live, 

E'en if she (!id not ever see again 

The face that seem'd so beautiful to her — 

Only to know that somewhere^ far away, 

He liv'd and breathed, and that there was a hope 

However vague, that she might once again 

Dream (only dream /) to look at him on earth ! 

Kneeling beside the bed she tried to pray, 
But her impatient spirit fear'd lest Heav'n 
Was too far off to listen to her pra/r, 



68 Constance s Fate ; 

So, in the madness of her agony, 

She caird to Geoffrey Denzil, praying him 

Upon her bended knees that he would live. 

" Oh, if you die," she said, " you break my heart, 

" Good-bye to life ! oh, let me die with you ! 

" Think of the three whole years we have been friends, 

" Think of the places we have seen together — 

" When you are gone my poor dreams crumble down, 

«* Oh, stay with me ! oh, live to be again 

" My chosen friend ! ah, do not go away ! — 

" I love you more than life — come back to me ! " 

She threw her hopeless arms about his neck. 

For o'er his face a death-like pallor spread, — 

Some change seem'd working in him — all her soul 

Look'd out upon him from her haggard eyes. 

He did not move, she thought he scarcely breathed— 
The pulses of her body seem'd to die — 
" Oh, speak to me ! Ah, do not leave me thus ! 
" Oh, Geoffrey, Geoffrey ! you will break my heart I 
She sobb'd, and fainting, fell upon the fjoor. 

I know not how it was some bell was rung. 
And by and bye a servant sought the room 



or, Denzil Place. 69 

Denzil was sitting looking at the wall, 

And Constance lay unconscious at his side, 

*' She fainted," in the faintest voice he said — 

" This shock has been too great" — he waved his hand, 

" I'm better now," he said. " Leave me alone — 

"Take care of her, she needs must want repose." 

They took her to her chamber, where she lay 

As one exhausted ; ev'ry now and then 

She sadly ask'd them, " Is he still alive ? " 

Or else she wept and said, " He was my all 

" On earth, my one companion ! Save his life ! " 

Sir John was touch' d, and watch' d her tenderly, 

And told his sister with how true a love 

She lov'd his boy, for never did he doubt 

That all her trouble came from fears for him — 

But Miss L'Estrange compress'd her virgin lips, 

Put on a face of Sphinx-like mystery, 

And shook her head with a contemptuous look 

At good Sir John, who was not one of those 

Bom to decipher riddles. Thus for days 

Prostrate and weak, and wandering at times. 

She kept her chamber ; sometimes for whole hours 



JO Constance's Fate ; 

She stared at the gay pattern on the wall 
Forming the tendrils and the leaves and flow'rs 
Into unmeaning words and animals, 
And human faces, all unknown to her. 
The doctor merely echoed Geoffrey's words : 
*'The fright has been too much, she needs repose; 
" She has received a shock, and nervous fear 
** Prostrates her mind and body ; let her rest." 

And Denzil ? Had he felt those tender arms, . 

And was he silent ? Had that gentle voice 

Summon' d his truant spirit back to earth, 

And was the change that pass'd across his face 

(That change which Constance feared had boded death) 

Only a slow revival to that life 

He may have felt her warm breath bid him live ? — 

I cannot say — I hope he did not hear 

The words I hope would never have been said 

Had he not seem'd so very near to death — 

Yet still, I also hope, that, had he heard 

And had he felt each re-awaken'd pulse. 

Throbbing triumphantly the knell of Death, 

He still had felt the laws of honour bade 

Hira sc in to die, when, had he seem'd to live, 



ory Denzil Place. 71 

It had been difficult to live and spare — 

" The strong should e'er be merciful ; " with him, 

He may have felt that. weakness was the strength 

To which he might have ow'd a victory, 

And may have scorn' d to profit by those fears 

It may have seemed she all too fondly nursed — 

There are some things that are not known at once, 

And this is one ; — so let it be enough 

To say that Geoffrey Denzil did not die ; 

Tho' stunn'd and bruised, and with a broken arm, 

He did not suffer any other ills. 

And ere pale Constance, with a languid step 

And downcast eyes, once more resumed the life 

Of ev'ry day, Denzil seem'd quite as strong 

And like his former self as he had been 

Before the Fire. 

It was with many fears 
And coy misgivings, that his hostess clasp'd 
His outstretch' d hand (the /f/"/, the right one still 
Hung in a sling) the day when first they met. 
Her voice was trembling, and a guilty blush 
O'erspread her faded cheek — she did not dare 
To meet his eye, all was to her so changed — 
He did not seem the Geoffrey of the Past, 



72 Constance's Fate ; 

Nor did she feel as once that Constance felt 
Whose love was innocent. 

He spoke the first, 
She thought his voice had never seem'd so cold, 
So calm, so measured, studied and poUte — 
(I feel assured he had not heard her words — ) 
He spoke to her with all that careless ease 
She long'd to borrow ; this, his icy tone, 
Restored at last her courage, tho' she felt 
A pang of disappointment at her heart, 
(That tender erring heart that so had beat 
And ached, and almost broken for his sake !) 
Sir John explain'd that Denzil, not content 
With saving Roland from a fiery death. 
Had added newer cause for thanks, and wish'd 
That she, Sir John, his sister and the boy. 
Should stay at Denzil, till at Farleigh Court 
The ravages by fire and water wrought 
Had been repair' d ; Sir John, who saw in this 
Only the kindness which a friend on friend 
Would willingly confer, agreed to go, 
And so, as soon as Constance should be well, 
Twas thus arranged. At first she did not know 
How to confront a change so sudden, made 



or, Dejzzil Place, 73 

Without her knowledge, and unsought by her — 

To dwell within the precincts of his home, 

To see around her all the thousand things 

Which needs must breathe of him, to live with him 

In this new, even closer intimacy. 

Just after she had wrested from her heart 

Its fatal secret — was this wise or right ? 

Yet how could she protest ? What should she say ? 

How could she meet him as she used of yore ? 

Unconsciously she had recourse to pray'r, 

And lifting up her heart, she pray'd that God 

Would grant her strength to fight the Povv'rs of 111. 

But as she stood and staramer'd out her thanks, 
And fear'd that they, (so many) might, as guests, 
(And for so long,) prove inconvenient — 
Denzil explained, that even could it be 
That such might be the case another time, 
Yet now it would be otherwise. " Indeed," 
He said, '' the kindness will be all your own, 
" It will be good of you to keep my house 
*' Well aired and cared for whilst I am away ; 
" Next week I start for Germany." 

Away! 

4 



74 Constances Fate ; 

So he was going from her ! Ah, how soon 
The fears about the safely of her soul 
Vanished before this terrible surprise ! 
So he was going — ah, then God was kind — 
(Too kind !) but what a weary sunless life ! 
He did not love — he was so calm and cold, 
And she could well have learnt to school her heart- 
She could, at least, have seen him ev'ry day ; 
But now apart, with land and sea between. 
And dangers, distance, adverse winds, and Time 
To drive him further from her ! . , . . 

But 'twas well, 
Ar.d God was merciful, and helping her. 

Here Denzil said his horse was at the door ; 
" There are some things to settle ere I go," 
He said to Constance, and before her heart 
Could realize that this was his farewell — 
This cold left-handed parting, he was gone, 
And Constance was alone. 

(I feel assured 
He had not heard the tender words she said 
When she beUeved him dying, I am glad.) 



Oh, love ! thou who shelt'rest some 
'Neath thy wings so white and warm, 
Wherefore on a bat-like wing 
All disguised didst thou come 
In so terrible a form ? 

As a dark forbidden thing, 
As a demon of the air — 
As a sorrow and a sin, 

Wherefore cam'st thou thus to me. 
As a tempter and a snare ? 

When the heart that beats within 
This, my bosom, warm'd to thee, 
Was it from a love of sinning, — 
From a fatal love of wrong, 
From a wish to shun the light ? 
Nay ! I swear at the beginning 

Had'st thou sung an angel's song, — 

Had this wrong thing been the rightj 

Thou had'st seem'd as worth the winning 

And with a will as firm and strong 

I had lovM with all my might 1 



*« Un jour tu sentiras peut-6tre 

Le prix d'un cceur qui nous comprend, 
Le bien qu'on trouve k le connaitre 
Et ce qu'on souffre en le perdant," 

{^Alfred de Musset.') 



" I gang like a gliaist, and I care na to spin, 

I daur na think on Jamie, for that wad be a sin ; 
But I'll do my best a gude wife aye to be, 
For Auld Robin Gray he is sae kind to me." 

{^^ Atild Robin Gray,'' by Lady Anne Lindsav.) 



IV. 



ilO it was over ! Love had come to her 
All unsuspected, in her harmless youth, 
But hardly had she known that it was he 

Before his wings were spread and he was gone. 

Oh. desolation ! — All the hopeless train 

Of new emotions, hitherto unguess'd, 




78 Constance s Fate ; 

Crowded upon my hapless heroine — 
The mystery of silence, and the love 
Of solitude to brood — to brood on what ? 
The guilty bhish, the forced and ghastly smile, 
The fears, th-e pra/rs, the vain delusive hopes, 
For what ? For whom ? To what ungodly end ? 
Oh, misery ! oh, Death ! and yet, (oh, Shame !) 
Strange mingling of the bitter and the sweet ! 
Oh, treasure newly found ! oh, priceless pearl ! 
Oh, Life ! oh. Love ! 

These were the chequer'd thoughts 
That made of Constance such a guilty thing, 
An alter' d woman, pale, and wrapp'd in dreams, — 
A lovely shadow of her former self. 
Ah, now she learnt so many hidden things ! — 
The secret of the bird's soft even-song, 
And what the winter wind at midnight said — 
The sympathetic, dumb companionship 
Of nature, with her blessed haunted shades 
And empty shrines ! The sward that lately bow'd 
Each happy little blade beneath his tread, — 
The seat where once they sat — the target still 
Stabbed with his certain arrow in the gold-^ 
(There was another target from whose core 



or, Dcnzil Place. 79 

Upspmng a pointed poison' d random dart !) — 

Ah, what a history in everything ! 

And that same sun, and that cahn, careless moon, 

Rising and setting as they used of yore, 

But lighting with their radiance a world 

Seeming so dark and different to her ! 



But tho' to Constance as a dread surprise 
Had come this sudden wakening to truth, 
Yet there were many who had prophesied 
This fatal ending to a friendship form'd 
Against the rules of Prudence. 

Round about 
The tatt'ling neighbours oft had smiled to meet 
Upon the dusty mile of highway road 
Which separated Denzil from Sir John's,— 
The eager horseman, making for the lodge 
Of Farleigh Court, and often had they sigh'd 
With many a gloomy presage, when they saw 
The pony-carriage with the dappled greys 
Driven by Constance, who with rod and line, 
Or else with sketch-book, pencils, and camp-stool, 
Was going to fish or sketch in Denzil Park. 



So Cojtstance's Fate ; 

Roland was there, of course, but then they thought 

Of all the tender nothings one may say 

Before a child ; or how so slight a check 

Might even serve to fan the torch of Love — 

Their ready minds imagined man}' words 

Wrapp'd up in metaphor, or said in French, 

Italian, German, of so many tongues 

Denzil was master — surely some of these 

Might even mystify poor dear Sir John 

If spoken as tho' quoted from a book — 

Ah, then those books ! a language in themselves I 

Accomi)lices in crime ! The subtle mark 

Beneath those passages that breathe of love ! — 

The Lancelots and guilty Guineveres — 

All their forbidden converse underlined— 

The Fausts and Marguerites, and Heloise 

And Abelard, Francesca — all the throng 

Of wicked lovers and illicit loves ! 

Nay, they might almost spare themselves the pains 

Of even this, and use the English tongue, 

And it would seem the same to good Sir John 

As Hebrew or Chaldean — such to him 

Tlie language of the poet or the flow'r, — 

The cunning compliment — the tender glance, 



or, Denzil Place. 8l 

Who was so simple, thick-headed and good ! 

Why they might ahiiost squeeze their guilty liands 

Beiieith liis honest nose, and he remain 

As blind as was that husband in the tale 

Of Pope and Chaucer, ere he had his sight 

Too suddenly restored. How much they pray'd 

That poor Sir John might not awaken thus ! 

So did the scandal-loving neighbourhood 

Gossip and slander ; many shook their heads 

On hearing Constance had been ill, and much 

They whisper'd and surmised when they were told 

How she and good Sir John had gone to stay 

At Denzil ; but this fact, somehow, became 

Shorn of all interest when soon they learnt 

That Geoffrey Denzil had departed, bound 

For foreign lands. It seem'd a cruel thing 

That he should go away just at the time 

When they foresaw a " thick' ning of the plot ! '* 

But still they did their best, and soon they wove 

The fears and tremors which poor Constance felt 

Into some sentimental malady 

Connected with his absence. — One old man 

Who had a wicked twinkle in his eye, 
4* 



82 Constance' s Fate ; 

At a dull local dinner, with a leer 
Inquired facetiously which fire had caused 
Lady L'Estrange's illness? that one lit 
By Mr. Denzil, or the lesser one 
He help'd extinguish ? All his list'ners here 
Titter'd convulsively, and one of them 
Call'd him a "naughty, odious, funny man." 

But Constance did not hear these calumnies 
(Having, alas, a fatal grain of truth !) — 
These envious voices did not penetrate 
The tangled brakes of Denzil Park, which rose 
Bird-haunted, flower-starr'd, a leafy screen 
Between the idle whisp'ring world and her. 

'Twas early spring-time, all the eager buds 
Were pressing into life, as on that day 
Three years ago, when Constance, like a child, 
Came smiling hither, playing hide and seek — 
Thinking to cull the earliest snow-drop flow*r, 
Or find the first four blue hedge-sparrow's eggs,- 
Seeking for these, she came, and met her Fate,- 
Hoping and seeking now (against her will) 
To meet some trace of him who was her Fate 



of'y Denzil Place. ' 83 

She wander'd listlessly, and found but these 

The early eggs of happy mated birds 

And the first snow-drop, looking like that one 

Three years ago ; but had it been the same, 

And had its hanging head concealed an eye, 

That little peeping modest eye had mark'd 

The change wrought in those white and trembling hands 

That cull'd so tenderly its transient bloom ! 

• Alas, for snow-drop immortality !— 
The same to careless eyes, yet not the same, — 
Heir to the drooping head and fragile stem, — 
Heir to the chaste traditions of the race- 
Emblem to trusting hearts of those belov'd 
Whose sleeping bodies, wrapp'd in silent clay, 
Await the second wakening to life. 
To rise like these fair blossoms, from a dark 
Mysterious imprisonment ! Ah, who 
May say if this long-cherishM metaphor 
Which Spring each year renews, is, as a whole, 
Perfect, or but a visionary hope 
Begot of Faith and Love ? Ah, true indeed 
The wondrous resurrection of the flow'r, — 
The flowT of kin, the fragrant heir-in-fee, 



84 'Constance's Fate; 

But not, alas, thatfloiaJr of bygone Spring 
Which, brown and faded, lies between the leaves 
Of some old book, a soulless scentless thing, 
Wither'd as those dear hands, maybe, that cull'd 
Its dead forgotten blossom ! Ah that flow' r^ 
That very floufr I Grant me the grace to know,- 
To understand the subtle second life 
Which was not cruih'd, when on its pearly youth 
Closed those dim pages like a living tomb ! 

But to sad Constance, fill'd with trusting faith, 
Came no such wistful musings ; — in her eyes 
The pointed petals rising from the earth 
Were emblems of the pure immortal soul 
Aspiring heavenwards ; those snowy leaves 
Seem'd like the folded wings of patient saints 
Waiting the signal of the April shovv'r 
To spread themselves in glorious disproof 
Of sophistry, above the empty graves 
Of their awaken'd hearts ; and thus she watch'd 
Sadly, but trustfully, the coming Spring. 

Within the house, upon the pan ell' d walls 
Hung many portraits, and in some of these 



or, Denzil Place, 85 

Constance at times perceiv'd (or deemed she did,) 
Some turn of eyebrow, or some ilash of eye, — 
Some curl of hair or pointed cut of beard, 
Recalling that last scion of the house 
Who occupied so much her wand' ring thoughts. 
On these she often dwelt, and o'er and o'er 
Spelt their departed names, and lov'd to trace 
That fancied likeness to her absent host ; 
Till by and bye these ancestors became 
As friends, who seem'd to understand hei heart — 
She knew them all, and to her dying da3> 
Might have been question'd as to namea and dates, 
Nor made a single blunder- 
First there came 
The first Lord Denzil, of Queen Mary's reign, 
Attainted, and beheaded in the Tow'r, 
(A man of fifty, with a pointed beard. 
Wearing a scarlet skull-cap, clad in black. )^ 
His eldest son, a lad of seventeen — 
In breast-plate and buff coat, (an early tomb 
Awaited him, for, falling from his horse, 
He died before his still more luckless sire.) — 
Then ladies, ruffd and starch' d and farthingaled, 
Iniprison'd in their pearl-strewn stomachers 



86 Constance s Fate ; 

So stiff, they surely scarcely could have breathed 

(Alas, where are they now, those Orient pearls 

Sewn with such lavish prodigality 

Over the dresses of our grandmothers ? 

Some pear-shaped, dropping from their tender ears, 

And others in magnificent festoons 

Hanging about their shoulders ? — 

Pearls like these 
The ladies of my family possess'd — 
Witness their portraits, did they pawn or sell 
Or melt them, like dark Egypt's Queen, in wine, — 
A toast to some more modern Antony 
In doublet and trunk -hose ? or else did they — 
They or their thriftless, careless handmaidens. 
Break all the strings, and let them roll away 
Like common beads, under the rugs and chairs, 
Being so large and round ? Ah, had they but 
(To use a billiard phrase) had "legs enough" 
To roll a little further — down to me !) — 
Then came the beetle brows of one Sir Guy 
With his two brothers, oblong, in a row, 
Their heads in profile, whilst his own, in full 
Scowled at poor Constance as she gazed on him. — 
Ev'rard and Ralph came next, who both died young, 



or^ Denzil Place. 87 

And then a Geoffrey; Constance read the name, 
It seem'd to ease the aching of her heart 
To see those letters, painted in in white 
Beneath the coat of arms ! Unfortunate 
This Geoffrey was, he died at Naseby field 
Fighting for Charles, whilst on the other side 
His brother Hugh fought under Oliver, 
(Alas for Civil War, which brothers thus 
Could " Cain and Abel-ify " ! but so it was.) 
Then simp'ring dames, artistically draped, 
Each holding betwixt thumb and forefinger 
A spray of jess'mine — painted at the time 
When ev'ry lady seem'd to dress in blue, — 
Next, all bewigged, and with his hanging sleeves, 
She saw another Ralph, a Jacobite, 
On whom King James, when he had fled to France, 
Bestow'd some " barren honours." Next to these 
There came the days of powder and of paint, 
Fatch, pig-tail, petticoat and high-heel' d shoe, 
And so they glided downwards, to the days 
Remcmber'd by the living, and the last 
Of all the line was Geoffrey's grandfather 
Playing- the violin, beneath a bust 
Of sage Minerva — by his side the globes 



88 Constance's Fate ; 

Of Earth and Heaven. He was known to Fame 

As a mild poet of the night-cap school, 

He also held an office at the Court, 

And prosper' d, wrote, and fiddled till he died, 

The only lucky Denzil. " And a fool." — 

(So Geoffrey said, half jealous of the praise 

Monopolized by this weak forefather. 

Who wrote a poem, call'd " The Birth of'Love," 

Which, as some compensation for the ills 

His house had will*d the House of Hanover, 

He dedicated with a fulsome pen 

Dipp'd more in milk and water than in ink, 

To the plain-headed tho' deserving Queen 

Of George the Third, in which she was compared 

To Venus, and the Prince of Wales to Love.) 

But what to Constance seem'd the dearest thing 
Was a fair little boy who held a dog, — 
Painted some five-and-twenty years ago 
In water colours : very badly drawn. 
Having a prim white frock and sky-blue sash ; 
His little hoop and stick were lying near, 
And in the distance there was Denzil Place— 
This funny little picture had no name, — ' 



OTy Denzil Place. 89 

The little fair-hair'd boy was like a doll, 

Or still more like all other little boys 

In any other badly finish'd sketch ; 

Yet Constance lov'd it — it was small and light, 

Easy to move, and so she took it down 

From off its nail, and brought that little boy 

To dwell where she might see him, in her room. 

Her room ! it had been Geoffrey Denzil's once, 

She had not known it, choosing it by chance 

Because from out its windows she could see 

So fair a landscape — woods and grassy slopes. 

And nearer, when she look'd towards the left. 

The arch'd beginning of the avenue, 

Dusk with its over-hanging evergreens 

E'en in the leafless seasons of the year — 

This chamber, on the basement of the house, 

Open'd upon a spacious corridor, 

And at one end of this, three steps led down 

Into the dim, low, silent library 

Which Constance lov'd, for here besides the books 

(She lov'd to read,) were rang'd upon the floor 

Some four or five square cases, made of tin, 

Dark-color'd, and on these, in letters white, 



90 Constance's Fate; 

Constance devour' d, with eager hungry eyes 

The name she lov'd, despite of all the shame 

Such love might bring her. She would close the doors 

On chilly afternoons and sit alone, 

Feasting her eyes on those beloved words : 

This " Geoffrey Henry Denzil, Denzil Place " 

Was comfort to her at this dreary time, 

And here she used to read and write and dream, 

And try forgetting, or in rasher moods 

Try to remember e/ry line and tone 

Of vanish' d features or of silent voice. 

For she was very lonely in these days 

Of early Spring: Sir John and Miss L' Estrange 

Went almost daily to inspect tiie works 

At Farleigh Court, where builders, whitewashers, 

And painters, all were busied with repairs. 

Constance would often watch them as they passM 

Under her windows o'er the swampy lawn 

After the rain ; her husband's stalwart form, 

Upright and hale, despite his sixty years. 

And Miss 1/ Estrange, who, clinging to his arm. 

Trudged with the brisk flat-footed energy 

Of wither'd spinsterhood, and keeping step 



or^ Denzil Place, 91 

With his more manly stride, thro' wind and rain 
Accompanied Sir John. As in a dream 
Constance would watch them, wave a languid hand, 
And with a shiver turn towards the fire ; — 
Time was when she could also breast the storm 
And brave the struggles of encroaching Spring 
With unrelenting Winter, but those times 
Were changed, and now she sliuddei'd as she gazed 
On mist and sleet ; so, when the days were cold 
She stay'd within the doors of Denzil Place. 

Roland had gone to School ; she often wrote 
And said "Ah, how I miss you dear, dear boy ! 
" The place is different — it all seems changed — 
" Now you are gone " — and even as she wrote 
She tried to think it was indeed the loss 
Of him, her youthful playmate, made her sad. 

One day as she was writing in her room, 
And listlessly consid'ring what to say, — 
What news she had to ttll the absent boy, 
To write of which might serve to lure her mind 
From one sad thought ; and as she dreamily 
O'erturn'd the pages of the writing-book, 
She started suddenly, and seem'd to wake 



92 Constance s Fate ; 

To newer life, for she had found a trace— 
An unexpected trace of him she lov'd. 

There on a scrap of paper, partly torn, 

She read these words, in Geoffrey Denzil's hand: 

" At last. It almost seems too hard to bear — 

*' But so it is, and I must go from hence." 

She look'd, and on the scarce used blotting-book 

Perceiv'd some straggling and uncertain lines 

Illegible, (if she had tried to read,) 

Save where her timid, hesitating eye 

Espied the curling crescent of a *' C," 

And knew her name had once been blotted there. 

Why did he go away ? What was so " hard " — - 

" Almost too hard to bear" (she thought,) " for him /*' 

But whilst she mused, her self-accusing heart 

Dared not delude itself with such a doubt. 

A hundred trivial unimportant things 

Flash' d to her memory, in each of which 

She seem'd to read a hidden meaning now,-^ 

She knew^ and all her aching lonely heart 

Went out to Geoffrey Denzil over-sea. 

Next day an aged dame, the housekeeper, 

(Once Geoffrey's nurse,) knock'd gently at the door, 



or^ Denzil Place. 93 

Said some half-dozen kind maternal words 
About her health, then took the blotting-book 
And lock'd it up, and Constance felt as tho' 
A friend was gone. " Was Mr. Denzil well 
*' Before he left ?" she ask'd the kindly dame. 
" Yes, he seem'd well, but moody — he was odd— 
" The Denzils all were odd in all their ways — 
*' Incomprehensible ; — his father odd, 
" Incomprehensible," — (and here the dame 
Mutter'd a homely Athanasian Creed 
About the family she serv'd so long) 
'' Before he left," she said, " he wrote in here 
" Near half the night ; he made a kind of Will — 
" (They are so strange !) and then he sent for me 
"And told me what to do when he was dead — 
" He gave me then two letters, — one for Prince 
" (The country lawyer here) and one for you — 
" He said, my lady, if I died before 
" (As well I hope I may !) your letter then 
" Was to be sent to Prince, and so to you. 
"I think 'tis something touching the entail 
" Of diis estate ; Sir John, you know, is heir 
'' To all that part his kinswoman brought in 
** As dowry ; but Sir John is likely soon 



94 Constance's Fate ; 

" To go, my dear, the way of younger men, — 
*' Don't look down-hearted), Mr. Roland then, 
" If master does not marry, has it next, 
"And this is something telling you of that — 
" Maybe you'll never know if master lives, 
" As aye I pray he may." " I pray he may," 
Poor Constance echo'd. 

So, he thought of her 
On that last ev'ning he had passed at home 
Before his voluntary exile thence ! — 
This sacred chamber, where she sat and wept, 
Knew all the secrets of that absent heart ! 
Here had he written to her — here maybe, 
Where she was standing now, a week ago 
(One little week !) he stood, and had his thoughts 
Wander'd to her above the fir-tree tops 
Over the silent rooks ? When all men slept 
He was awake, and writing in this room, 
And she, one little easy mile away. 
Was waking too, at Farleigh Court alone, 
Nursing the fatal secret of her love ! 

Ah, hapless Constance ! so, then, this was love— 
This was the master passion of the earth, 



or, Denzil Place. 95 

This was the envied blessing of the few, 

The common curse of the unfortunate ! 

She saw before her now, without disguise, 

The outline of her uneventful life ; 

Till now her lonely childhood, motherless — 

The handsome easy-going parish priest, 

Her father, who had fixed upon the Church 

As a profession, merely as a means 

Of livelihood for him, a younger son 

Of an impov'rished house. His thriftless ways, 

His open-handed dealings with the poor 

" Which saved much time and trouble " (so he said,) 

And then his love of sport, his love of wine, 

His pressing debts, increasing poverty, 

And finally his illness and his death — 

And then she saw herself, a little girl 

With large appealing eyes, dress' d all in-black, 

Taken to dwell with a stern kinswoman 

She could not love ; once more she seem'd to live 

In fancy, o'er those miserable days 

Of solitude and sadness ; — then she thought 

Of the first day she saw good kind Sir John 

With wrinkled rosy face, and genial laugh. 

And how, one day, he took her for a ride — 



96 Constance's Fate ; 

JiCnt her a horse, and used to cheer the house, 

And make a kinder woman of her Aunt 

Whene'er his honest footstep cross'd the door — 

And how, when she was only seventeen, 

He drove her Aunt and her to Farleigh Court, 

Where, in the bilHard room he question'd her 

If she admired the place ? She said she did, 

*' So beautiful, so grand, the rooms so large." 

*'Well, why not Hve here !" kind Sir John exclaim'd 

Then hemm'd and haw'd, whilst on his cheek the red 

Grew redder ; then, with apoplectic snort. 

He hurried from the room, and Constance stood 

Be wilder' d at his words, tho' guessing nought 

Of their intended meaning. 

Up and down 
She roll'd the white and color'd billiard-balls — 
(She yet could hear the harmless ' cannoning,' 
And still more harmless ' kisses ' that they made 
These three unconscious witnesses to what 
So chang'd her life !) Then by and by her Aunt 
Enter'd the room, and open'd wide her arms, 
Enfolding to an unaccustom'd kiss 
The fair astonish' d girl. Sir John stood near 
Smiling and gibb'ring, in a whirl of hope 



oYy Denzil Place. 97 

And doubting diffidence ; and next she thought 
Of how (all ignorant of what they meant, 
Those marriage vows, either to bind or break). 
She went to church in white, and how the way- 
Was strewn with flow'rs,.and how she pass'd the grave 
Of her dead father, and the wish she felt 
That he could see his daughter's happiness. 
Her happiness t ah, bitter mockery ! 
Since then her heart had fathom'd many truths ! 
She knew that bitterest of bitter things 
(As says a German writer) not too feel 
So much the pangs of sorrow, as to guess 
The unsuspected happiness* we miss'd ! 

Yet could she be so heartless as to wrong, 
Even in thought, this generous old man 
Who took her from the dull monotony 
Of her desponding youth ? He had perform' d 
All he had vow'd, she could alone deplore 
Her own shortcomings ! If he had but been 
Her father, or her uncle, or her friend — 
How she had lov'd him then ! but now, alas ! 
Upon her guilty head each kindness fell 
Like coals of fire ! But she would do her best, 



98 Constance's Fate ; 

And if she could not love him as she ought, 

At least her wretched hea-rt would pray for strength 

To fight against this other alien love ! — 

And so she pray'd, and register'd a vow 

That she would cast away for evermore 

This fatal snare, and strive to be to him 

(Her husband) such a wife as she had hoped, 

Before she knew the meaning of the words 

" Love, honor, and obey." 

Alas, for these— 
The vows of mortals vowing not to love ! 
At which, I wonder, do the mocking gods 
Smile most — at these, or at those rasher vows 
To love eternally ! Alas, that both 
Should be so often but as sounding brass 
And tinkling cymbal ! The relentless Fates 
Are weaving, as we swear, the tangled webs 
Of a deceitful (jiim Futurity 
Into a galling everlasting chain, 
Or snipping with their scissors the last link 
Of what we deem'd would fetter us for life ! 
Ah, will they change their pre-concerted plan 
And shift the web to what should be the woof 
At sight of pray'rs and tears, and wringing hands? 



or, Denzil Place. 99 

I dare not say, but Constance, as she pray'd, 
Felt happier and cahner — o'er her stole 
A dreary resignation, wrapped in which 
As in a garment, still she wept and pray'd. 



Oh, under my breast I can feel it still 

My fooli sh heart that is throbbing yet— 
Whilst his horse's hoofs from the distant hill 

Seem to echo the words '* Forget ! forget ! 

" Forget,— for ' I lov'd but. I ride away' 

*« So rise and forget met and dry your tears, 
*' For the words that I whisper'd were easy to say, 

** And the love must be strong that will weather the years I *' 

Forget? ah, forget me my fair false love— 

Forget me, the courser that speeds on the wind, 

Forget all the fancies my poor heart 'wove— 
The dreams and the hopes that you leave behind I 

But you, my love, I can never forget, 

And so be you false, or so be you true, 
The seal of your kiss on my soul is set 

And this heart thit is beating is beating for you I 



*• Ask me no more : thy fate and mine are seal'd, 
I strove against the stream and all in vain ; 
Let the great river take me to the main : 
No more, dear love, for at a touch I yield ; 
Ask me no more. " 

Tennyson. 



*♦ Ce que les poetes appellent 1' Amour, et les moralistes 
PAdult^re." 

Ernest Feydeau, 




ilHAT is it makes the silent hours of night 
So sad, so desolate, to those who love ? 
It cannot be because in lieu of sun, 
A paler planet sails aloft in heav'n ; 
Or that the firmament is prick'd with stars — 
Is it, maybe, when half the drowsy world 
Are made oblivious by the chains of sleep 
To grief, and joy, and love, that thro' some strange 



io4 Constance's Fate; 

Mysterious compensating natural law, 
The other half of human kind, who wake, 
Made doubly sensitive, with keener force 
Feel those emotions which the sleeping world 
Forget in dreams ? 

Outside the diamond panes 
Of the bay-window'd room where Constance sat 
One night in early March, the tempest howled 
With all the fury of the Equinox ; 
Whene'er the wind abated, in a show'r 
Of stinging sleet, the noisy midnight rain 
Beat on the window. Now and then the fire 
(By which she lingered reading) hissed and smoked 
As down the chimney, driven by the wind, 
There fell a hailing handful of the storm. 

Constance had long been reading, now she pauseJ, 
Push'd back her hair, and softly sighing, closed 
The finish'd second volume of her book. 
The house was silent — the tempestuous voice 
Of the conflicting elements without 
Made the dim chamber where she sat alone 
Seem doubly desolate. A thrill of fear 
She knew nat why, crept over ev'ry sense, 



oty Denzil Place, 105 

(A feeling difficult to realize 

In daylight, but which oftentimes at night 

Hath chiird the blood in braver hearts than her' s)— 

Thinking to scare away this haunting shade 

Of an invisible terror, one by one 

She Ht the candles, stirr'd the dying fire, 

And strove to summon fear-dispelling thoughts ; 

As thus she ponder' d, suddenly there rose 

The long-denied and heart-forbidden dream, 

Flashing across her mind; she seem'd to hear 

With sad distinctness ev'ry silent tone 

Of that dear voice— that well remember'd face 

Arose so plainly to her memory 

She long'd to call upon this shadow-man 

To speak— to move, to show himself indeed 

To her expectant eyes I 

It was as tho' 

The room was full of Geoffrey— all the air 
Seem'd heavy with his presence, tho' unseen 
It was as if his spirit hover' d n ear- 
So near it seem'd, that o'er her heart a dread 
Crept like an icy blast, for she had heard 
That oftentimes ere mortals leave the earth 
Their spirits hover thus a Uttle while, 
5* 



io6 Constances Fate; 

Making the influence of their presence felt 

By those who lov'd them ; oh, if he had died ! 

If somewhere far away, with land and sea 

And mountain-ridges rising up between 

Their sunder' d hearts, his thoughts had turned tv) her 

And thro' some subtle nameless agency 

•His soul, upon the wings of his desire 

Had flown to nestle near her, ere it rose 

Above all human loves ? In vain she triec! 

To wake some more substantial train of thought 

Instead of this unreasonable dread 

Of the impossible. Alas, her book 

(A simple story of a city life — 

The wholesome history of honest toil, 

Inventions, strivings after modest fame 

Amongst the smoke of London,) she had read. 

It was a book the very thought of which 

Would exorcise perforce all foolish fears 

Of midnight phantoms, bringing as it did 

Such unromantic scenes of common life 

Before the mind, unsentimental — real — 

She took it up, and listlessly turn'd o'er 

The pages she had read, then starting up 

Bethought her that the third last volume lay 



or^ Denzil Place, 107 

Upon the sofa in the library 

Where she had left it with her worsted work 

Some hours ago — 

She almost fear'd to pass 
In her " uncanny " superstitious mood 
The row of staring Denzils on the walls 
Of the deserted corridor, but yet 
Knowing how foolish were such childish fears, 
She wrap p'd herself in a long flowing robe 
Which made her seem herself a lovely ghost, 
And taking up her candle, flitted thro' 
The quiet passage — down the flight of stairs. 
And pushing noiselessly the oaken doors 
She glided quickly thro' the silent room 
To where she saw the volume of her book, 

Ab she advanced she heard a rustling sound, 
At first she thought " it is the midnight wind 
" Driving against the dripping window-ledge 
*' Some spray of ivy," then, her heart stood still, 
And all her life's warm blood seem'd turn'd to ice 
As she beheld, not far from where she stood, 
The stooping figure of a man, who knelt 
Carefully searching thro* the title-deeds 



to8 Cotistance's Fate ; 

And papers which an iron case contain'd 
Mark'd with the much lov'd name. 

•*A thief!" she thought, 
And stood amazed and petrified with fear — 
Tho' speechless, from her terror-stricken lips 
Escaped a gasp of horror — then the man 
Rose to his feet, and look'd her in the face— 
She utter'd one low incoherent cry 
And fainting, fell in Geoffrey Denzil's arms. 

When she recover'd consciousness, her head 
Was resting on his breast — against her own 
His cheek was press* d, and on her mouth she felt 
The ardent lips of her too well-belov'd 
Kiss her back to life, and heard his words 
Thrill thro' her being, as he murmur' d thus — 

" My love, my life ! my love whom I have lov'd 
So long, so tenderly, ah, look at me ! 
Speak to me ! say again those blissful words 
You said when you believ'd I heard them not ? " 
(So, he had heard !) " Ah, darling, ere I go 
"Leaving behind me all I love so well. 
* Oh, let me know that she who is to me 



or, Denzil Place. log 

" Far dearer than is aught on earth — in heav'n — 

" Has been to me but once my very own ! 

** Surely the marriage vows we may not break 

** Are such as our's had been if God had will'd 

" That we had met before, and now could live 

" Join'd heart and soul and body, till we died — 

" God knows that I have wrestled with my love 

** As Jacob with the angel, or as man 

" May wrestle with a fiend sent here to tempt 

" His soul astray, I tore myself from home 

" And only came to it again by stealth 

" As would a thief, so that I might not meet 

*• So sweet a snare as lurks, in these dear eyes — 

" But now some stronger, some niore subtle pow*! 

" Than I possess, has will'd that we should meet 

" Here in the dead of night, where none can see, 

" In this deserted room, now face to face 

" I find my love alone — I hold her fast — 

" Ah, can I be of earth — of flesh and blood — 

" Can I be mortal man, and let her go ? " 

** Geoffrey, have mercy ! " 'twas an anguish' d cry 

As of a terror-stricken hind at bay. 

As, all defenceless, lock'd in his embrace 



no Constance's Fate ; 

She strove to thrust away his eager lips, 
Feeling his hot breath on her trembling cheek 
And in amongst her loosely knotted hair, 
And the wild beating of his desp'rate heart 
Out-throbbing her's. 

Alas, her strength was gone ! 
Asa long pent-up river breaks its banks 
And rushes madly onward to the sea, 
So did the heart of Constance overleap 
Its breastwork of resolves, uprais'd with tears 
And many pray'rs, and heedless as the stream 
Rush'd on to meet the ocean of his love. 
To mingle with it, sinking soul and sense 
In those enchanted* waters. 

By and bye 
A noise as of a gently closing door 
Made Geoffrey start ; Constance, as one entranced, 
Lay passive in the prison of his arms, 
Feeling some new delicious languor steal 
Over her senses, blinding, deafening, 
A "death in life." 

" Some one is passing near," 
He whisper* d, " Darling, for the love of heav*!! 



oVy Denzil Place. iii 

See that you gain your chamber unobserved — 
I will not stay to work you harm, by morn 
I shall be miles away." She held his hand 
As tho' to let him guide her to the door, 
Then, turning, said as in a waking dream, 
Looking as pale and haggard as a ghost, 
*' Remember me sometimes." 

" My love, my life, 
" My only darling," Geoffrey cried, and press'd 
Once more his hungry loving lips to hers ; 
" I never can forget you whilst I live — 
*' Good night — good-bye," 

•As a somnambulist 
Treads without seeing, so did Constance walk 
Towards her lonely chamber ; in the hearth 
A few expiring embers now and then 
Crack' d forth a sign of life. The candles still 
Were flick'ring, but a regiment of dwarfs 
Compared to what they had been when she left— 
This told her first she had been long away. 
For in her fever'd brain the flight of Time 
She could not calculate ; — so mad, so swift 
Were those enchanted moments ; yet a life, 
Nay more, it seem'd a whole eternity 



f 1 2 Constance's Fate ; 

Of w'ld emotion, passion, ecstasy, 

Had pass'd since those four tapers first were lit 1 

She saw some flow'rs she gather' d yesterday 

Unfaded, tho' it seemed so long ago, 

She went towards her glass half absently, 

And gazed and started, for her face looked changed— 

The air of child-like innocence was gone — 

She groan'd aloud, and falling on her knees 

She cover'd with her white and trembling hands 

What seem'd the fair accomplice of her guilt. 

How long she thus remain'd she did not know, 

But when she saw the first faint struggling ray 

Of morning, dazed, and shivering with cold 

She rose from off her knees, look'd out, and saw 

A wintry sun rise on her new-born life, 

(For so it seem'd). Her flimsy dressing-gown 

Was blown aside, and the chill morning air 

Breathed on her heart, but still she stood, and look'd 

As might a statue. All at once she heard 

A sound as of a passing horse's hoofs — 

The laurels hid the rider, but she knew 

Thai it was Geoffrey, faithful to his word, 



or^ Denzil Place, 113 

Tearing himself from England and from Love. 

Till then she had not analyzed her thoughts, 

They all had been so wild with self-reproach, 

But now an uncontrollable desire 

To follow him who " lov'd and rode away " 

Made her outstretch her empty aching arms 

Towards the spot wherefrom the dying sound 

Was now but faintly echo'd ; then to heav'n 

She raised them pleadingly, with clasping hands, 

And in her desolation cried aloud 

** God bless my darling wheresoe'er he goes ! " 



Dearest ! if we had never met 

Happier, perchance, had been my fate. 
Maybe the tear-drops would have wet 

My cheek less often than of late. 
My face would not have look'd a lie 

To hide the thoughts I dared not speak; 
Unsigh'd had been these sighs I sigh, 

Unblush'd these blushes on my cheek. 
Perchance my smile had been sincere, 

And life had seem'd an easy task, 
Ere Love had tempted me to wear 

This guilty ever-galling mask. 
This might have been, but 'tis not so. 

Ah, happier far if it had been ! 
The fatal shaft has left the bow 

And hit a target unforeseen! 
It is not so! And had it been ? 

Alas, had I to live agaui 
I would not sacrifice my love 

To save my soul an endless pain. 
I would not sacrifice for this 

That darken'd light's last ling'ring beams, 
Or lose the memory of a kiss 

Which now I only feel in dreams. 
And tho' this music of the Past 

May echo thro' succeeding years, 
Till smiles may learn to spring at last 

Out of the memory of tears. 
Yet would I die, if near thy heart 

I could but breathe my last fond vow. 
And kiss away on thy dear lips 

The life I do not value now I 



' Love, all defying love, who sees 
No charm in trophies won with easc^ 
Whose rarest, dearest fruits of bliss 
Are plucked on danger's precipice 1" 

Moore. 

" Now, if this man should be 

Vain, selfish, light, or hearted with a stone, 
Or worthless anyway, as. there are many, 
I've given myself, like alms unto an idiot. 
To be for nothing squandered 1 '* 

T. L. Beddoes, 



VI. 



H, lovers of all ages, kingdoms, climes, 
How have you suffer' d 1 What a motley cre^v 
Would throng the earth could all your buried 
hordes 
Collect from out the scatter'd dust of Time 
And re- assume the human shapes you wore ! 
Yet, could you carry in your wither* d hands 
Some record telling of the hopes and fears 
That thriU'd you once, I ween that each of these 




Ii8 Constance's Fate; 

Would bear a closer semblance to the other 

Than would the fashion of your winding-sheets ! 

The legend 'graven on the scarabee, — 

The pictured emblem of the Ninevite, — 

The roll of papyrus, held in the grasp 

Of the illustrious mummy, — all of these 

Translated, doubtless would resemble much 

Our modern hist'ries of despairing sighs, 

Or those still further from us, — tales of loves 

Antediluvian or pre-Adamite, 

When, haply, in the groves now fossilized, 

Haunted by monster Megatherium 

And Plesiosaurus, mortals liv'd and lov'd 

And sinn'd, as now they live and love and sin. 

Granted that those can love whose eyes have been 
All ignorant of tears, whose kiss is bless' d 
By priestly benediction, — in whose lives 
A kindly heav'n has will'd that Love and Law 
Should be united : Duty and Desire, 
Honbur and Happiness link'd hand in hand, 
Show'r gifts upon them, in their hours of bliss 
Should they but raise their eyes, they seem to see 
The wings of ho v' ring angels, and the hosts 



or, Venzil Place. Ii9 

Of highest heav'n, with sweet approving smiles 
Joining the throbbing chorus of applause 
' Wrung from their grateful bosoms. 

These indeed 
May love, and wherefore not ? but what of those 
Who love despite the thunders of the just, 
Whose ev'ry heart ache, welcomed by the jeers 
Of mocking fiends, is chasten'd by the gods ? 
Hide in thy bosom, poor unfortunate. 
That love which is thy torture and thy crime, 
Or cry aloud to those departed hosts 
Of ghostly lovers j can they be more deaf 
To thy disaster than the living world. 
Who with a careless smile will note the pain 
Caused by thy foolish self inflicted wound? 

When Constance 'woke after that fatal night. 
She thought at first "Ah, I have dream'd a A-.-d-A 
Too terrible— too sweet ! " then all at once 
The truth flash'd on her, crushing her with d.bXA^ 
And self-abasement— yet to this was join'd 
So great a tenderness for him who wrought 
Her misery, that had she had but wings 
She would have flown to nestle in his breast 



120 Constance s Fate , 

She looked in consternation at the clock 
And saw with wonderment that it was noon. 
Fearing Sir John would question such delay 
She rang her bell, and hastily began 
To make amends for what would seem to him 
Unwonted indolence. Anon her maid 
Enter'd the room, and hoping she was well, 
Gave her two letters, one was from Sir John 
The other from his sister. " Both were gone 
(The girl explain'd) " to London, where Sir John 
" Had suddenly been summon'd whilst she slept, 
*' He, knowing that my lady is not strong, 
" Had order'd that she should not be disturb' d, 
" But left these letters, telling her the cause 
*' Of his departure." 

Constance, too surprised 
To question her informant, broke the seals 
Of the two letters ; then she knew full well 
The reason she had been deserted thus 
As one plague-stricken, left to sigh alone. 

She opened first the letter from Sir John 
With hands that trembled, and as in a dream 
She read these words — 



ovy Denzil Place. 121 

** Constance, I am too shock'd 
" Even to contemplate or to bewail 
<*The fate I suffer— it has come to me 
" So suddenly : enough that I know all— 
" I will not torture you by saying more 
" On what I feel you will repent in time— 
" The many troubles that have come at once — 
**The fire, and then this unexpected blow — 
" Have shatter' d me in mind ; — this is my wish 
*« To spare you all I can of that disgrace 
" Which needs must fall most heavily on you 
«< Who, I believe, have wish'd to do the right — 
" (How strong the dire temptation must have been 
"Which led e'en you astray I dare not think !) 
" This is my wish— that you should go to Town. 
•* (I send you money.) Say that I am there 
" Summon'd in haste by business, and once there 
*< Leave England for awhile — I shall return 
" And say your doctor sent you to the South — 
" Be happy if you can — I cannot bear 
"To meet you yet awhile— some day maybe — 
" I do this for the honour of our house 
" And for the little boy you used to love. 
" Good-bye, God bless you, I can write no more." 
6 



122 Constance's Fate ; 

The other letter was a longer one. 
"Abandon'd woman !" (thus the words began,) 
" To-morrow I shall blush to think my pen 
" Could so pollute itself as spell your name! 
" Was it to bring disgrace upon our house 
" That you, a country parson's pauper child 
** Should flirt and fawn and flatter till at last 
" You gain'd your selfish ejid, and made a man 
" Treble your age, your husband and your dupe'? 
" Maybe, the guilty partner of your crime 
"You ^ fancied^ ere you were my brother's wife, 
*' But he, more cunning, like all libertines, 
" Knowing at once the woman that you were 
" Was wiser than Sir John, whose simple mind 
** Judged others by himself. 

"Ah, well he knew 
" This Mr. Denzil, with his easy creed 
" And looser morals ! Ife was not your dupe I 
" These Atheists throw off beliefs themselves, 
"TJiey cramp and fetter them, and act as bars 
** To their desires, but when they want a wife 
" They do not fasten on the like of you ! 
" Somewhere, (for I am told that he has fled,) 
" He no doubt smiles in his deceitful sleeve 



or, Denzil Place. 123 

** At you, his victim ! Ah, the noble part 

** That he has acted ! All his fine ideas 

" About his ' Honour ' and the * Love of Right* 

" His ' Adoration of the Beautiful ' 

*' The * Liberty of Man ' (ah, here indeed 

"He acted up to what he boldly preach'd 

" If you are beautiful, as he is man !) 

" But where was stow'd his ''honour' all these years — 

*' These three whole years, during the which, with you 

" His neighbour's wife, he liv'd in deadly sin? 

" Why, all the neighbourhood was rife with it ! 

" Your names were link'd together ev'ry where ! 

"The poor, who were too. dull to understand 

" The indiscretion lurking in their words 

" Named your two names together ev'ry day, 

"Your's is a bye 7vord ! All my brother's house 

" Have been respected since they came to dwell 

" Here in this county, (nigh three hundred years,) 

" And but for this, you would have seen ere now 

" The scornful finger pointed as you pass'd 

" By e'en those very grateful villagers 

"You lov'd to patronize and queen it o'er ! 

" My brother wishes to protect you still 

** Frow all the infamy you well deserve, 



124 Constance's Fate ; 

" And hopes that you will go and dwell abroad 

** Wliilst he lives on in solitude — his lips 

"Too generously silent. Thank your God 

** You had a husband who could thus repay 

" Your treachery and guilt ! He knows it all — 

" I watched you stealing to your paramour — 

" (How many nights you thus have sought his side 

*' 'Twere vain to ponder on ! ) Ah, well conceiv'd 

" Those midnight visits ! All the servants bribed, 

"The groom in ambush, waiting for the horse, 

"The house door open'd with the master's key ! 

** But not so well arrranged but that the door 

" Of that most horrid room was left ajar — 

" (Long practice makes too bold, the pitcher oft 

" Goes to the well and breaks the hundredth time ! ) 

" Ah, if its walls could speak, what would they say, 

"What tales of midnight orgie, foulest sin ! 

" (I shudder at the thought !) 'Twas there I saw 

" As he was bidding you a last farewell, 

" So close together your two guilty heads, 

" I scarce could tell the hateful things apart — 

" Whilst he was pressing on your lying lips 

" His own, which doubtless scarcely yet were dry 

" From kissing some such creature as yourself 1 



or^ Denzil Place, 12S. 

" Ah, you are fairly match'd ! Go, seek him now, 

** Implore his mercy, swear to be to him 

" Truer than you have been to one more true, 

" And list his answer ! He will cast you off 

*' And lower sinking, till the lowest scum 

" Of human earth will scorn to mix with you, 

" Your lonely life, fed with that poison. Sin, 

*' Must needs be short, and then, unload, unmiss'd, 

** Your soul will pass to the high judgment seat 

" To meet its doom ; then will it be for me 

**To pray that in those bitter latter days 

"You may be penitent, and that the heav'n 

** You so have sinn'd against, may deal to you 

" More mercy than your evil heart thought fit 

" To mete to others, least of all to us ! 

" Nay, even now (to show my heart is free 

" From thoughts of vengeance for your cruel wrong, 

" And with the hope that I may make you feel 

*' The virtuous can wisli the sinner well), 

" I say, may God have mercy on your soul, 

** And bless your exile with a lasting good 

** Wrought to your spirit 1 

" With this earnest hope 
" I sign myself yours truly, Jane L'Estrange." 



126 Constance's Fate ; 

Constance had wept when she had read the first- 

The kind sad letter of her outraged lord, 

But now she felt as is supposed to feel 

The worm that has been trampled till it turns, — 

The malice lurking in each spiteful line, 

The pent-up poison flowing from this pen, 

Let loose at last, as from the adder's tongue— 

The base injustice, the impatient wish 

Thus tx) exaggerate and multiply 

Her fault, all this directed at herself 

She did not dare resent — it was deserved — 

But what she felt she never could forgive 

Were those envenom'd arrows aim'd at him 

Her love, her life ; the angry crimson blood 

Rush'd to her cheek as she read o'er again 

Each bitter accusation. Well she knew 

That he had fallen from his high resolve, 

But then her heart would have it that he fell 

Fighting against some superhuman pow'r — 

A power he had striven with for years — 

She would not think that that beloved form 

C j/icealcd a cruel calculating heart 

Such as she heard had sometimes lurk'd beneath 

A mien deceptive. Yet these lying lines 



or^ De7izil Place. 127 

So far impress'd hei that her mind conceiv'd 

That first intangible small germ of Doubt, 

So bitter — so impossible to kill 

In solitude, his tender lips alone 

Could drive away the demon that these words 

Had summon'd into life, and where was he ? 

" Ah, grant that I may see him once again," 

She pray'd, " That I may know these words are false 

"And that his heart is true ! My darling ! " 

Here, 
(Had there been aught in willing^) Geoffrey's form 
Had stood before the lady of his love, 
Impell'd by that divine affinity 
Which triumphs over distance, death, and time, 
But tho' her ardent spirit long'd and lov'd 
He did not come, and Constance wept alone. 

Then she bethought her how she oft had heard 
Wise saws about the fickleness of men, 
And how they love to pluck forbidden fruit, 
And how, when tasted, they will fling away 
What they have striven with such pains to grasp— 
Or how a man will often in his heart 
Despise the woman who will yield to him, 



128 Constance' s Fate ; 

Loving some other, who is hard and cold 
And unrelenting ; — how upon the paths 
Of men like these, lie many faded flow'rs 
Strewn with the years, and trodden under foot, 
Loves of all shades and colours — many- voiced. 
With song-notes variable as the birds' 
By sunny shores, and under alien skies 
Beguiled and won. She sadly thought, " Alas ! 
" I may be such a little thing to him — 
" A passing thought — a moment's light caprice, 
*' Whilst he is, oh, so very much to me ! " 

Then sadly she prepared her to depart, 
An outcast and an exile ; first she tore 
Into a thousand fragments, which she burnt, 
The hated letter. With a sinking heart 
She bade a sad farewell to ev'iy spot 
She lov'd so well. The garden she explored, 
And gather' d from each glossy evergreen 
A dear memento — laurel, box, and fir, 
Cypress and rosemary, and one dark spray 
Of sad funereal yew, to which there clung 
A single waxen berry ; these she bound 
Into a garland, and thereon she wrote 



<7r, Denzil Place, 129 

" This wreath of leaves was gather'd in the garden 
** Of Eden ; — to be kept for evermore.'* 

She did not know, who had not seen as yet 
The bright kixuriant gardens of the South 
How httle like the fancied fields of Heav'n 
This one would seem in an Italian's eyes, 
Accustom' d to behold in his own land 
Such blaze of blossom — such a brilliant sun ! 
But unto her it seem'd as tho' the doors 
Were closed upon some earthly paradise, 
As soon as swung the heavy iron gates 
Of Denzil Park, behind the speeding wheels 
Of the old-fashion' d carriage, on the morn 
She and her maid departed on their way — 
So much she lov'd the home that was his home, 
The sacred spot where she had seen him first. 

Her maid, who watch' d her shyly, wonder' d why 
Lady L'Estrange's eyes were fiU'd with tears, 
When she herself was all too pleas'd to leave 
The dull old mansion and the tiresome trees 
Of dismal Denzil, and to go to Town ; 
But Constance felt as if her heart would break. 



130 Constance* s Fate, 

" Good-bye," she thought, *' dear trees, dear shaded 

walks, 
" Earth that his feet have trod — good-bye, good-bye ! 
** Good-bye, old house, where he was born and bred, 
" Where he may dwell some day, and some day die, 
*' Home of the buried fathers of my love ! " 

Thus Constance quitted silent Denzil Place, 

To face that stern relentless outer world 

Of which she knew so little. Never more 

For her those gates unfasten' d ; — ne'er again 

Fell her light footstep on the polish'd floors, 

Nor were the dim old oaken panell'd walls 

Flatter'd again by that sweet flitting shade 

Caressing them. The old house stands and waits, 

And all its windows look like straining eyes 

Watching for Constance, — for the fairy thing 

That suddenly became identified 

With its moth-eaten records of the Past. 

Ah, never more ! those windows wait in vain, 

Thro' all the changing years she will not coroe. 

No more her sunny head and wistful eyes 

Will grace the empty open window-frames I 

She came and went, as vanishes a dream, 

And the old house is waiting her in vain. 



PART II. 



PART II. 



•* The angels, not half so happy in heaven 

Went envying her and me, 
Yes 1 that was the reason (as all men know 

In this Kingdom by the sea,) 
That the wind came out of the cloud by night 

Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee. 

*' But our love it was stronger by far than the love 

Of those who were older than we — 

Of many far wiser than we ; 
And neither the angels in heaven above 

Nor the demons down under the sea 
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul 

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee." 

Edgar Allan Poe. 



Oh, lost and lov'd, and gone bt'bre 1 

I look and long with tearful eyes 
For what will come to me no more, 

The summer warmth of southern skies, 
The sunny waves that rise and swell 

And seem to me at times as near 
As those that echo in a shell 

Held to a child's attentive ear, 
Oh, lost and lov'd ! The magic thread 

That binds my heart to scenes like these 
Shines not alone from radiance shed 

Thro' golden fruited orange trees. 
The murmur of that tideless sea, 

The odour of those thousand flow'rs 
Alone, had never lent to me 

This day-dream of delicious hours ! 
Ah, thou wert there . ,. . ! Dear sunny clime 

In ^yhich we lived our happy day, 
No changes wrought by tide or time 

Can steal thy borrowed charms away ! 
For, turning back to Love and thee 

These dismal hours reflect again 
The radiance of that summer-sea 

And dull the anguish of my pain. 
Dear Land of Love ! I sometimes dream 

That I, unlov'd, am wand' ring there. 
And wonder if its groves would seem 

As fragrant, or its skies as fair — 
I wonder too, if this dim light 

This mock'ry of a summer sun, 

Might not appear to me more bright 

If shared by that beloved one ? 



I know not, but at eventide. 

After this faded sun has set, 
When thro' the window, open wide, 

I breathe the scented mignionette 
And all the flow'rs thou loved'st so well. 

The clematis and violet. 
And drooping yellow asphodel. 

Then mem'ry whispers to my heart 
Of all the joys denied to me, 

And wheresoever love, thou art, 
I iain would go and dwell with thee t 



•• Italia, Italia, o tu qui feo la sorte 

Dono infelice di bellezza ; ond' hai 
Funesta dote d'infiniti guai 
Che in fronte scritti per grand doglia porte." 

ViNCENZO FiLICAIA, 

tt A land 

Which was the mightiest in its old command 

And is the loveliest, and must ever be 
The master mould of Nature's heavenly brand 
Wherein were cast the heroic and the free. 
The beautiful, the brave; the lords of earth and sea." 

Byron 



VII. 



Ih, Italy ! how dare I write of thee 

When other bolder lips than mine have fail'd 
To sing thy praise as I would have it sung ? 
Home of the myrtle arid the violet- 
Sky of serenest, clearest, bluest blue, 
Earth of intensest, warmest fruitful n ess,— 




138 Const ajice's Fate; 

Where life is lii/d, and ev'ry qaicken'd sense 
Impatient, drinks in loveliness, and feasts 
On wonder after wonder ! 

Having bask'd 
Beneath thy glorious, seldom-shrouded sun, 
And lov'd beneath thy scented orange boughs, 
Dear land of Art, of Beauty, and of Love, 
Now that my happy lips can proudly add 
The name of Freedom to thy list of charms. 
Fain would I, when my journey here is done 
Mix with thy sweet emancipated Earth ! 

Constance had sought this land which, like herself, 

Was bless'd (or cursed) by Heaven with the dovv'r— 

' The fatal dow'r of Beauty,' but alas 

For her, altho' resembling Italy 

In being born to this fair heritage — • 

E'en more unfortunate than that sweet land 

She groan' d in faster fetters ; — all in vain 

For her Italia' s liberators rose, 

Mazzini. Garibaldi, and Cavour, 

Breaking a bondage less inveterate 

Than was her own ; weighing upon the heart 

The burden of a fatal servitude 



or, Denzil Place. I39 

Defies emancipation ;— thus she sigh'd 

A lovely slave in chains— (those chains that seem 

To some like brittle bands of summer flovv'rs, 

As Love, descending airily on them 

With the soft 'lighting of a butterfly, 

Leaves no sad trace behind to mark the place 

Where his white wings have press'd, whilst on 

another 
More keenly sensitive, he burns a scar 
Searing and withering unto the core 
The hapless heart that never more is whole.) 
How could she free herself from all the host 
Of newly waken'd torments? How subdue 
The multitude of restless enemies 
Besieging her, and harassing her soul ? 
Love and Despair, and vas'cillating Hope, 
And Self-reproach, and Jealousy, and Doubt ? 
How put to flight these fierce invading foes— 
These tyrants— these Tedeschi of the heart? 

The town near which sad Constance made a home 
Was by the shores of that delightful sea 
Tideless, and often bluer than the sky 
Kissing its utmost edge ; towards the hills 



140 Constance's Fate ,\ 

Which bounded it to westward, gardens grew 
And olive-grounds, where nestHng in the shade 
Of orange-groves, and dim with trelliss'd ways 
O'errun with creepers, painted villas rose 
With cooMow rooms, paved with their octagons 
Of shining crimson tiles, whilst on their walls 
The cunning artist had depicted scenes 
Repeating those the gay Venetian blinds 
Shut out from view — long line of sunny sea 
And orange-gardens, sombre cyj^ress trees 
And sparkling fountains ; all the ceilings too 
Seem'd mimic vaults of heav'n, altho' the art 
Of mortal painter could not imitate 
The cloudless blue of the Italian sky. 

In one of these my heroine dwelt alone 
An exile and a penitent : her home, 
The smallest of two villas which were call'd 
^.y the same name, stood in the garden grounds 
'.If its moio spacious neighbour. Those who know 
' '\e wondrous beauties of that flow'ry land 
\J\\\ see in fancy such a fairy place 
As was this southern garden ! Tow'rds the left 
(Looking to seaward) rose the boundary 



or J Denzil Place. 141 

Which shut this Eden from the outer world — 
A sunny wall of stucco, painted pink, 
Where, sporting in and out the frequent chinks 
Left by the clumsy scaffolding, she watch'd 
The playful pointed lizards in the sun. 
She often strove to catch them, but in vain ; 
Like many other far more precious things 
They glided thro' her fingers, or at times 
Half blinded with the glory of the sun, 
She only grasp'd a shadow, scaring thus 
The fleet reality, which slid away 
Leaving her empty-handed. 

Near this wall 
Was built a shady summer-house or bow'r 
In which there was a window, garlanded 
With many-colour'd roses, clematis, 
And tendrils of the scarlet passion-flow' r. 
Oft sitting in this leafy balcony 
That over-look'd the narrow stone-paved way 
Which led down from the mountains to the town 
She mused for hours, fann'd by delicious air, 
And list'ning to the unaccustom'd sounds 
Wafted around her. Tinkling southern chimes 
The ratt'ling hoofs of heavy-laden mules, 



142 Constance's Fate ; 

The crackling whips of sun-burnt muleteers 
Who goaded on with curses or with songs 
The patient creatures, smother'd with their bells 
And scarlet tassels. Seated carelessly 
Amongst their panniers, knitting as they rode, 
The black-eyed peasant- women laugh' d and joked 
And shouted to the men. Or, sadder sounds 
Would reach her, when the brown Franciscan friars 
Pass'd, bearing to their convent in the hills 
The silent dead. The painted effigies 
Upon the waving banners which they bore 
Reach'd almost to the window where she sat, — 
The twinkling candles, and the crucifix 
UpUfted high in air, to which there hung 
The ghastly figure of a naked Christ 
Surrounded by the horrid instruments 
Of human torture, sponge, and murd'rous spear 
And wreath of biting thorns — all these recall'd 
With painful vividness the agony 
Of God on earth ; anon, from time to time 
Long after the procession pass'd her by, 
Borne back upon the gentle southern breeze 
She heard again that dismal monotone. 



OTf Denzil Place. 143 

The convent had been hidden in the shade 

Of sombre olive-trees, but that aloft 

Its pointed belfry, roof'd with coloui-'d tiles 

Betray'd the refuge of those holy men 

AVho here had fled the turmoil of the world 

Vowing to bear perpetual poverty 

And live according to the godly rules 

Dictated by St. Francis. Or, again, 

When western breezes, with their balmy breath, 

Changed the dim branches to a shining sea 

Of glist'ning brightness, turning heavenwards 

The silver under lining of their leaves, 

Then Constance could behold betwixt the boughs 

The high enclosing walls, and thro' the gates 

Could catch a glimpse of tombstones gay with flow'rs 

And colour'd crosses, many deck'd like shrines 

With off rings of affection \ for 'twas there 

Towards the convent gates that Constance oft 

Would take her morning stroll, or, with her book, 

'Twas there she sat beneath the olive-trees 

And watch'd the monks, clad in their russet gowns, 

Go forth in twos and threes, some bearing sacks 

And empty baskets, making for the town 

To beg or market. She would try to guefs 



144 Constance^ s Fate ; 

\Vliat cause induced each individual 

To live this life, and wove strange histories 

Of blighted hopes, or unrequited love, 

Or sad bereavement, making of the world 

A place so desolate, that it were best 

To shut its mem'ries out with iron gates 

And massive walls ; but these were only dreams 

Of one who thought that all the world, like her, 

Had lov'd and suffer'd; — this religious sect, 

Mostly recruited from a peasantry 

Sunk in the lowest depths of ignorance 

And superstition, scarcely boasted one 

Whose life would be more worthy to record 

Than that of a dumb animal which toils 

And helps to till the fertile earth, whose flow'rs 

It is too dull and weary to admire — 

For them no sentimental griefs of heart 

Or morbid longings for a solitude 

Remote Irom haunts of men ! those iron ills 

Of human life, disease and poverty. 

Had driven fishermen too old to fish. 

Or muleteers too lame to drive their mules, 

Into this forced seclusion, nothing loth 

They changed their well-worn homespun coats of blue 



oVy Denzil Place. I45 

1 jr the brown, heavy-looking, holy cloth 
Of the Franciscan order ; ill they learnt 
And even worse pronounced their Latin pray'rs, 
These poor Italian peasants, but their dress, 
Their shaven tonsures, and their sandal' d feet 
Fill'd Constance with a sense of mystic awe — 
To her they seem'd the pious chosen few 
Who, for the love of Christ, had put away 
Those evil lusts and longings of the flesh 
So dear to. man, and here in solitude 
And constant pray'r had buried evermore 
The recollection of their stormy lives. 



Ah, all the storms they ponder'd on were those 
Braved on that beautiful capricious sea 
Which Constance lov'd ; of these they often talk'd 
With holy brethren— brethren once who shared 
Their ocean perils and their finny spoil. 

Within the cloisters of the nunnery 

Which stood still further hidden in the hills, 

Tb*re may, perchance, have throbb'd some heavy 

hearts 
7 



146 Constance's Fate; 

Stricken by arrows with a sharper point, 

Inflicting pangs far more incurable 

Than those of hunger, thirst, or rheumatism, 

But yet the placid features of the nuns 

Seem'd to belie this pitying surmise, 

As Constance heard them, in their modest tones, 

Give her a smiling blessing as they pass'd. 

Of one of these, the sym])athetic voice, 

And dreamy eyes, made Constance feel for her 

As for a friend. This sister shovv'd her o'er 

The convent garden, gave her flow'rs and fruit, 

And praised the while the peaceful pray'rful life 

Led by herself and all the sisterhood. 

*'To know," she said one day, as Constance paced 

With this new-found companion up and down 

The convent terrace (looking tow'rds the sea 

And distant hills) " that sin can only live 

" Outside the doors we close against the world— 

" Tc feel that after God has lent us Life 

" We give the gift He gave us back to Him — 

" Devoting to such noble servitude 

** The energies of body, mind, and soul — 

*' What greater happiness than this on earth ? 



or^ Denzil Place, ' I47 

*' If, whilst our minds and our immortal souls 

** Ai 2 fresh with all the warm enthusiasm 

" Of our first years, what pious satisfaction 

*' If then for Him we mortify the flesh, 

" And dedicate to Him each hidden thought, 

*' Each longing aspiration of the soul ! 

"And then the blessed knowledge that our pray'rs 

*' May ease the punishments of purgatory, 

*' Earn'd and deserv'd by those departed souls 

" Who sinn'd on earth, but which the gracious Lord, 

" The blessed son of Mary, condescends 

" To mitigate and shorten ; ponder well 

"And ask that God may make you realize 

"The sacred pow'r of pray'r — the bitter sin 

" Of cold neglect." 

" Ah, these are thoughts indeed," 
Constance replied, " would lure my heart to pray, 
*' Could I but learn to credit such a creed ! 
" Most touching is the beautiful idea 
" Of intercession for the helpless dead ; 
" Ah, who would ever dare unclasp his hands 
<* Or rise from off his knees, could he but deem 
" This sweet belief of your's were only true ! 
" But we are taught a less poetic faith, 



148 Co7tstance^s Fate ; 

*• And tnis to us seems like a tender tale 

*' To tempt the knees to bend, and lift the hands 

** Of those who would not truly pray for aught 

" They could not measure, taste, or understand, 

" Or else associate with sentiments 

" Of earthly love and friendship, reaching on 

** And thus continuing e'en after death. 

" If what you think is true — is true indeed — 

" I pray in time to bring my stubborn mind 

" To know and feel its truth ; yet, if 'tis false, 

" Tho' sweet the thought of praying for the dead, 

" I would not lean upon a fleeting shadow 

" However fair ! What can our finite minds 

" Know of the dim hereafter of the soul ? 

*' One man may dream his own belief the best, 

" And force his obstinate idea of Heav'n 

*' Or Hell, upon the vacillating minds 

*' Of those who do not care to think themselves, 

" And like to take religion ready-made — 

" But 'tis the feeble sight of one poor worm 

*' Leading the others who are blinder still ! 

" For me, I trust ; I do not think I feel 

"Like some, the need that any one should pluck 

** The skirts of God for me — reminding Him 



or, Denzil Place, 149 

" To pardon. Mercy is His attribute, 

"And what seems good to Him, I know is good. 

*' 1 like to .think He will be merciful, 

** And that our too great self-abasement pains 

*' One who has made us for such noble things. 

" He surely must have meant that we should work 

" And seek ourselves the gifts we ask of Him — 

*' A troop of idle, cringing mendicants 

** Must please Him less, tho' crouching at His feet, 

" Than the brave man who feels responsible — 

*' Who fights his way and wins, and lays his crown 

" Of laurels at his heav'nly Father's feet 

" And gives him all the glory ? 

" All the hours 
"You and the Sisters pass in asking gifts 
" Might surely bring you better things at last, 
" Could you but go with praises in your hearts 
" Out into life, and in the striving world 
*' Meet and subdue the Great Antagonist, 
" Instead of fleeing from him ! You are good, 
* And I, a sinner — so forgive these words 
** From my unworthy lips ! I should rejoice 
" To leave the weary world, and come to you 
" And live in peace and pray'r amongst these hills 



J 50 Constance's Fate ; 

*' And happy olive-grounds ; but that, to me 
'* Who have so sinn'd and striven, this, the life 
" You lead, would seem too passive, and inert 
" Tho' 'tis a life free from the bitter sting 
*' Of self-reproach ; — ^forgive me for my words." 

(There was a tinge in this, her argument 
Of Geoffrey Denzil's subtler sophistry, 
A few short years ago she had not dared 
To speak thus boldly upon sacred things.) 
Her w^ords were in Italian, but the Nun 
Answer' d her sadly in the English tongue — 
" Dear lady, I am English, let us speak 
** The language of the country I regret 
" And fain would see again before I die. 
" When two sad women, in a foreign land 
** Led by the sacred sympathy of grief 
" Thus seek companionship, and hope to find 
"Not only this, but maybe friendship too, 
" What need to deal in useless mysteries 
" Or make concealments ? '* 

Constance smiled, and said, 
" You must have wonder* d at my awkward words 
" Of bad Italian ! May I ask you why 



or, Denzil Place, 15^ 

« You left our native island ? Do not heed 
" My idle questions should they give you pain." 



"Alas," the Sister answer' d, " soon is told 

** The reason of my choice ; my life at home 

*< In England was unfortunate, I came 

" Hither to lose my sad identity ; 

" I have succeeded, by the grace of God. 

" As a frail flow'r in this sweet southern garden, 

«* Which may have been a seedling from the north, 

" Expands into a glorious second life 

" Forgetful of its storm-tos^'d origin, 

« So have I been re-born to taste those joys 

" I knew not of, the Spirif s triumphing 

" Over the fallen flesh." 

Impatient tears 
Here fell from Constance's attentive eyes 
As in the Sisters short biography 
She traced a sad resemblance to h ix own. 
The dew, so chilling after southern suns, 
Was falling now, and ev'ry leaf and blade 
Seem'd heavy with a sympathetic tear, 
And Constance, shivering, drew on her cloak, 



152 Constance's Fate; 

Kissed the kind Sister on her sallow cheek, 
And sped towards her little twinkling home. 

All night slie could not sleep, tho' worn and tired 
She toss'd and turn'd, and ever and anon 
Came to her mind Sister Theresa's words, 
Which she repeated oft : " My life at home 
*' In England vvas unfortunate ; I came 
*' Hither to lose my sad identity — 
*' I have succeeded." . . . 

Then at last she thought, 
** 1 will give up the weary, wicked world, 
" And Uve this idle, happ)', pray'rful Hfe 
" Amongst the vines. Calm and self-satisfied, 
" I may be spared the pain of many tears, 
" And helpless, hopeless longings to forget — 
" Oh God, that it were possible to lose 
" One hated, blessed, haunting memory ! '* 

Her head was aching, and she seem'd to hear 
The jinghng southern chimes, now faint and low, 
Now clanging with a harsh and angry tone, 
And hammering a fierce discordant knell 
Into her fever* d brain. The empty room 



or^ Denzil Place, 153 

Seem'd full of chatt'ring strangers, pressing on 
Into her presence ; thro' the bolted doors 
They seem'd to crowd and elbow one another— 
She did not fear them, but she wonder' d why 
The world had grown so small — so populous, 
So noisy, and so sadly wearisome I — 
She wonder'd at a thousand other things 
Which had not seem'd so wonderful before — 
Compared this thing with that,, and multiplied, 
Subtracted — added, till her mind became 
A prison-house of figures, struggling all 
To make some given number. Then the twos 
And threes and fours all suddenly became 
Huge human forms ; amazed and terrified, 
She call'd for help against these horrid shapes, 
And when the frighten' d servants heard her cries 
They hasten'd to her, finding her alone 
But raving in a fever ; all her mind 
Distorted, wand'ring and delirious, — 
The secrets of her inmost soul let loose. 
She call'd to Geoffrey with a piteous cry, — 
" Come back to me ! deserted and alone 
" I wander thro' the world and look for you I 
*' So desolate — so lonely — and so cold ! " 

7* 



154 Constances Fate, 

(And here she shudder'd), then she rambled on 
Of Roland and Sir John. 

The doctor came, 
And bled her, as Italian doctors bleed 
Whenever they can find a fit excuse 
To use their lancets. Then her auburn hair 
He roughly cut with scissors, lest its weight 
Should add towards the fever in her brain. 

'Twas thus she lay for many weary days 
Peopling an almost perfect solitude 
With phantoms from the unforgotten past, 
And seeming oftentimes to see in dreams 
Her absent lover, with his earnest eyes 
Gazing at her with anxious, loving looks, 
And reading all the secrets of her souL 



When in our lives some evil change 
Fills our sad eyes with transient tears, 

If not from piety, we turn 

From habit, to those stars that burn 
With quiet, sympathetic light 
Up in the blue ethereal spheres — 

Those far star-lands, where comets range 
From time to time, and whence the sight 

(JpHfted, seems to meet the eyes 

Of God, assuming planet guise, 

Tho' heav'n-abiding, earthward bent 
Towards our heavy eyes that weep : 
Ah, little stars, your vigils keep 

High in the distant firmament ! 
Visible witnesses to prove 
That 'tis not only Death and Love 
Which mortals may'not comprehend. 
For what you are, and whither tend 

Your constellations, clustering 

And clinging to the vault of heav'n 

We know not, sadly wondering 
Ail veil'd and blinded as we are, 
Thoughtlessly worshipping that star 
Maybe the omen of our end ! 
How dare we, till the clouds are riven 
Shrouding our dull intelligence 
Hope for encouragement from thence. 

When e'en we know not what is best 
For our own wel fare day by day, 

Obeying blindly the behest 

Of hearts as changing as the waves, 
Fickle and ignorant as they — 



Mere puppets in some mighty hand 
Luring us on to shoal or strand, 
Or to mysterious ocean-caves. 
Where our dead hearts may be the food 
Of cruel sirens of the flood. 
In vain I lift my tearful eyes 
Towards th' impenetrable skies, 
The careless stars vouchsafe no light 
To show which path is wrong or right. 
Without a hope, without a guide, 
I seem a straw upon the tide 

Of Life's inevitable stream ; 
All helpless to resist the flow 
Of such a cataract, I seem 
Without a will — would I could know 
If it were best to trust my boat 
Upon this mystic wave and float 
Towards the ocean-gates, and be 
Borne to the unfathomable sea ? 



" Quan presto se va e! placer, 
Como despues de acordado 
Da dolor ; 
Como, al nuestro parecer, 
Qualquiera tiempo pasado 
Fue mejor." 

Spanish Song. 

"Comme on n'est jamais en liberte d'aimer ou de cessei 
d' aimer, Tamant ne peut se plaindre avec justice del'inconstance 
de S9 maitresse, ni elle de la legerete de son amant." 

La Rochefoucauld. 



VIII. 

FTER long days of fever and of pain 

There comes a lull, which almost mimics 
death, 

When the weak frame, which a false energy 
Has fired with transient force, revives to find 
The languid level of that listless life 
Which surely follows on the fever's track. 




158 Consta^ice's Fate ; 

Then one by one upon the wak'ning sight 
Dawn the familiar objects ; gradually 
The doubtful, semi-dormant mind renews 
Its old impressions, by the contrast made 
Terribly sharp, expressive and distinct. 

To Constance came this slow awakening 
As from the past experience of a soul 
Toss'd into port from some mysterious sea, 
Quick-sanded, and of dangerous ebb and flow — 
She look'd around, and saw the well-known room, 
Her little bed within its arch'd alcove — 
The painted chimney-board, and on a chair 
She saw a pray'r book and a rosary 
And the blue overgarment of a Nun — 
A plate of oranges, some fresh cut flow'rs — 
A heap of needle-work she noticed next — • 
And then the tall geranium-tree that climb'd 
Up half the house, look'd thro' the window-pane 
And nodded its red head, and secm'd to say 
" Good morning ! welcome back again to Life 
And sunshine ! " 

Thro' the folding-doors ajar, 
Which led into the little sitting-room, 



or^ Denzil Place. 159 

She saw a bending form, and recognised 

Sister Theresa's pallid pensive face — 

Beside the open window at her work 

She sat, her busy needle up and down 

Plied without ceasing, whilst a moted beam 

Of golden sunshine falling on her head, 

Liken'd her to those pale pre-Rafaelite 

Pictures of suffring saints, which seem to waft 

A faint, sad odour of asceticism 

Down to these striving, money-making days 

In which we live. Then, when her wand'ring eyes 

Had seen the sister, with a gentle sigh 

As of contentment, Constance turn'd aside 

And fell into a quiet dreamless sleep. 

Dreamless — ^yet often did she seem to feel 

The vague and half-ack aowledged influence 

Of fond eyes looking at her whilst she slept, 

Shedding on her their kind caressing beams. 

And now and then, she saw upon the wall 

The shadow of the Sister as she work'd. 

Or leaning o'er her, list'ning if she breathed 

Calmly and quietly, and once she thought 

She heard some whisper'd words in that dear voice 



i6o Constance's Fate ; 

She dared not ever hope to hear again 
Save in such waking dreams. 

Thus, half asleep 
She floated on the quiet sun-lit hours 
Back into life. The Sister rais'd her head 
With propping pillows, read to her, and talk'd, 
And told her stories of Italian life : 
As thus the Nun was tending her one day- 
She fell asleep, and waking up refresh' d 
As with returning strength, she softly rose, 
Half dress'd herself, and, looking in the glass 
Miss'd her long auburn hair, and met a face 
Looking like that of some sweet southern boy 
With tender dreamy eyes, and curling hair 
Cut closely round the little classic head. 

She thought Theresa would be glad to see 
How strong she was, and how her tender care 
Had nurs'd her back to life. An exile here 
She hfted up her grateful heart to God 
Who thus had will'd that she should find a friend, 
For in her desolation she had thought 
That all the world abhorred and hated her. 
Ah, when we deem we are deserted thus 



or^ Denzil Place, l6l 

Wliat double tenderness and gratitude 
We feel for those who even by mistake 
Have thrown to us some little random word, 
Some crumb of comfort ! How the ready tears 
Which would not rise to plead nor to resent, 
Will flood our eyes when some kind stranger thus 
Has heart to pity all the wounds of ours ! 
Much more did Constance feel indebted now 
To this devoted woman, who had thus 
Nursed her from Christian charity and love ; — 
She gently push'd the folding doors aside 
And thinking but to see that placid face 
She look'd into the sun-lit sitting-room. 

She look'd, and all her re-awaken' d being 
Flung to the winds its languid apathy, 
Whilst all the blood in her impassive veins 
Hasten'd tumultuously once more to warm 
Her faded cheeks ; for, looking out to sea 
And seeming dark against its blue expanse 
Framed by the flower-cover'd window-sill, 
Sat Geoffrey Denzil, leaning on his hand 
As plunged in thought. 

With wild impatient eyes * 



1 62 Constance's Fate ; 

She gazed on him who seem'd the Mive response 
To those uncertain visions, which the night 
Of Nature and of Reason had reveal'd 
To her unquiet mind. Yes, there alone 
He waited silently : she thought his face 
Look'd older and more haggard than of yore, 
-Its features somewhat harder, and the lines 
Which time or care had traced upon his brow 
Seem'd written now in plainer characters. 
As Constance look'd, she noted ev'ry turn 
Of form and feature ; Denzil's proud sad face 
(The face she knew, and loved, alas, so well !) 
Turn'd half aside, away from where she stood, 
Showing the outline of his haughty brow, 
His sunburnt cheek, and little pointed beard, 
Resembled much that portrait of Van Dyke 
Which the great master painted of himself. 
Or even more those gallant cavaliers 
Whose pictures deck'd the walls of Denzil Place. 

Constance, with all a woman's instinct, guess'd 
That this was not the first and only time 
That Geoffrey Denzil, looking at the sea. 
Had watched and waited near her all the day, 



or, Denzil Place, 163 

Hoping tor happy tidings ev'ry morn 
And sadly leaving, when the ev'ning light 
Flush' d all the changefid Mediterranean, 
The house where hover' d on the brink of death 
The woman whom he lov'd : 

She truly guess'd ; 
The peasants beating with their staves and canes 
The purple berries from the olive-boughs, 
Had often paus'd and watch'd with curious eyes 
The figure of the tall young Englishman, 
Who hasten'd ev'ry morning from the town 
Towards the painted Villa Belvedere. 
Arrested by no obstacle, he strode 
O'er outspread olive-sheets, and often left 
His footprints in the drying golden grains 
Of Indian corn. Or, Briton-like, he leapt 
Each rugged wall or pointed aloe-hedge 
Which separated garden-grounds or groves 
Of olive and of orange. 

Well they knew 
That either love, or some absorbing grief 
Impeird him thus, and for his handsome face 
And careworn look, they smilingly forgave 
His indiscriminating disregard 



1 64 Constance' s Fate ; 

Of property or landmark. Ah, those days 
Were days indeed of bitterness to him ! 
'Twas little wonder if his anxious face 
Bore trace of all his spirit underwent 
During this cruel time ! Amongst his hair 
(Had Constance follow'd blindly the advice 
Of her impetuous heart, and with her arms 
Encircled that dear head,) she would have seen 
How many subtle little silver threads 
V/ere coiled and intermingled with the brown, 
For love of her ! 

''^For her I " Ah, reader, thou 
Who with thy chaste and disapproving eye 
May' St deign to read this simple history, 
*' Wise as a serpent, harmless as a dove," 
Let not the voice of thine immaculate heart 
Go forth to judge my hapless heroine 
Who was not fashion' d of that sterner stuff, 
Fit to pursue the undeviating path 
Of perfect wisdom ! Surely to resist 
With such an impulse tearing at her heart 
Must prove at least she was not always weak ; 
So, pretty prude, read on, nor skip the page 
Whereon no tale of amorous interview 



<?r, Denzil Place. 165 

Will cause thy gentle cheek to wear a blush, 
For Constance, almost fearful as thyself, 
Found strength to close the double folding-doors 
As a defence against her guilty heart 
And Geoffrey Denzil. 

As he quickly turn'd 
He only saw a flutt'ring muslin fold 
Which somehow seem'd entangled in the door, 
And then a wan white hesitating hand 
Withdrew what might have been a flag of truce 
To the reluctant warfare he had waged 
For many weary days against his heart. 

Thus Constance could be strong, and cruel too— 

So Denzil thought, as fearing to pursue 

The trembling fugitive who thus in haste 

Regain'd the precincts of the sanctuary, 

He made one stride towards the closing door 

And there remain'd discomfited and sad 

With disappointment. 

When the Sister came 
She found poor Constance with a flutt'ring heart 
And tearful eyes. '* WTien did he come ? " she ask'(^ 



1 66 Constance's Fate ; 

" Ah, what avails to try and do the right 

" And flee away from evil ! For to me 

" The earth contains not two more terrible thin^js 

" Than, or to see him or to see him not ! 

" Oh, tell me ! did he come and seek me here, 

*' Or did you guess my heart and send for him ? 

" He is the very dearest thing to me 

*' In all the world, and yet we are not wed ! 

** He liv'd quite near us in our country home — 

**We used to wander in the summer woods 

"And walk together thro' the rustling leaves 

'* Of Autumn ; in the dismal winter days 

'* I long'd for light and warmth, and turn'd to him 

" And seem'd to find them both ; — he made the Spring 

" Seem greener, fresher, and more full of hope — 

" With him, each thing in nature grew to be 

** More beautiful, and guessing not the cause, 

" I let the days go by as in a dream — 

" My husband was the kindest of old men — 

*' He trusted me too well, and then at last 

*' One day I found myself a guilty thing 

" And so it happened." .... 

Then Theresa sigh'd 
And said that often in the wicked world 



ory Defizil Place. 167 

Like tragedies occurred. "You are so help'd 

** By ev'rything around you, to incline- 

" To Folly and to Sin ; e'en you yourself 

" Half charge the fields and flowers with your fault 

" And hold the forest trees responsible, — 

" But what of laughter, song, and merriment, 

** The blaze of lights, — and music and the dance — 

" The dress invented but to charm the eye ? " 

** It may be often thus,'* Constance replied, 

"But not with us, dear Sister ; true we lov'd — 

** But our's no mushroom-fancy in one night 

" Forced into life ; nor was our's sudden love 

" Dancing to pleasant sound of pandean pipes 

"And dying with the music ; — when I die 

" And not till then, will die in me this beam 

" Off-shot from lieav'n — this music of the spheres I 

" Na}^ — I, alas, can plead no such excuse, 

" For in almost as pure an atmosphere 

" As that wherein you say your daily pray'rs, 

" And summon'd by no more seductive strain 

*' Than the clear tolling of your convent bell, 

** Sprang into life my fatal love for him. 

" You are so good — you cannot understand— 



1 68 Constance' s Fate ; 

*' Ah, Sister, Love — than all the seven sins, 
" Is surely far more difficult to quell ! " 

Theresa answer' d that she was not good 
But a mere erring woman like herself — 
Who had at last been led into the fold 
Ofthe Good Shepherd. 

'* Women deem they love," 
She added, " but their love is writ on sand, 
" To fade before the first encroaching wave 
" Which sweeps away the letters, and the place 
" Once fair and smooth again, they trace straightway 
" Another name, which still another wave 
" Will kiss to death." 

" Ah, cruel metaphor ! " 
Sigh'd Constance with a shudder. " Waves may come 
"And men may come and go with changing forms,. 
" But in the world, to all eternity 
*' There lives one man — one only name to me ! " 

*' Ah, ^ souvent fe?nme varie,^ " replied the ISTun, 
" But in this happy household where I dwell 
*' (Where you may dwell if God vouchsafes you grace,) 
" We serve one Master only, and admit 



or^ Denzil Place. 169 

*' Of no allegiance which is split in two — 
*' (You know the text — and how we may not serve 
" Both God and Mammon.) What is earthly love? 
" How can a passing passion take the guise 
" And ape the majesty of higher things? 
"We men and women are but floating straws 
" On the inevitable stream of Destiny — 
" We love not whom we would, and oft the heart 
"Resists its fetters, but of what avail ? 
" Some secret current, such as will impel 
" Two of these said poor straws to cling together, 
*' (United by the circlet of a bubble 
" Which breaks and frees them lower down the stream) 
" Inclines our human hearts to him or her, 
" Or all as surely breaks the brittle bands 
" Binding our fickle natures ! Ere I sought 
" This happy solitude, I knew the world, 
" I heard Love spoken of, and did not shun 
"The mention of his name ; but I have liv'd 
" And learnt, and I am older far than you. 
"Ah, Love is bitterness ! I had a friend .... 
" One I knew well when I was of the world — 
"And could I prove to you by her sad fate 
" The litde worth of all our human loves- ^ 
8 



I/O Constance's Fate ; 

** The heart's unparalleled inconstancy^ 

"I would relate to you her history." 

*' I wait to hear it," Constance sadly said, 

" And wish, indeed, you could invent some tale 

" To teach me fickleness ! " 

Then said the Nun— 
"A lady lov'd, and oftentimes she sigh'd 
*' To one who courted her on English soil, 
" 'Alas, maybe I could have lov'd you once — 
*' ' But now too late ! too late ! it cannot be ! 
*' ' My heart is far away in Hindostan 
*' * Where braving for my sake the double ills 
** ' Of heat and cold (the cold is at his heart 
*' ' For loss of me !) my lover toils to gain 
" * The gold with which to win me from the hands 
" ' Of sordid parents,' as she spoke one day, 
" Open'd the door, and with a startled cry 
*'She fell upon the Anglo-Indian's breast 
" Before that other man who lov'd her well — 
*'Then all her friends rejoiced, and she was wed, 
" And he who lov'd her fled across the seas 
•*■ Unknown to her, in grief and bitterness ; 
*' And she, too hurried almost, to reflect, 
'* Prepared to journey to that distant land 



ovy Denzil Place. 17 1 

" To which her husband ow'd his growing wealth. 

" Then all went well at first — amused she watch'd 

" The curious elements of Indian hfe — 

" And whilst she moved and journey' d all went well, 

'^ For at her heart there was an aching pain 

*• She sought to kill by constant restlessness 

" And change of scene — and so the days went by ; 

" But when she came to Trichinopoly 

" (One short day's journey from her future home,) 

" She said to him (her husband,) ' Leave me here, 

** * My sad, sad heart is broken — let me die — 

" ' I lov'd the man I would.not own I lov'd — 

" ' You were so long away — I pray'd for you — 

" ' I said so often that I lov'd you well 

" ' I ended by believing what I said — 

*' ' Oh, curse me ! put me from you ! let me go ! 

" ' I cannot he at night so near your heart 

" ' When I am dreaming of that other man ! ' 

" Her husband heard her — he was stern and cold, 

" An Indian judge, (tho' in his secret heart 

"Methinks he was in favour of Suttee, 

" So firmly did he deem the marriage-tie 

" Bound women to their lords in life and death !) 

" He did as she desired — for, cursing her,^ 



172 Constance's Fate, 

" He put hei from him, and he let her go 

" Back to the land where last she saw the man 

" She really lov'd. Prepared to weather storms 

" And bear for him disgrace and poverty — 

" Prepared for him to live a life of sin 

" So she might see his face and make it glad — • 

" She thus returned ; but with her reach'd the shore 

" The tidings of an English victory, 

* And then she heard how on Crimean heights 

" This man she lov'd, and came to seek, had fallen 
'* Fighting at Alma. Naught to her remain'd, 
" The heart within her bosom seem'd to die — 
^* She forthwith said good-bye to all the world 

* And took the vows of a poor Sisterhood 
" As I have done." 

The tears were in her eyes 
And Constance turn'd away to hide her own, 
»♦ So now she is a Nun," she said, " like you— 
*' I pity her — and almost understand 
" Her history — yet fear this heart of mine 
" Is floating on a less uncertain sea — 
" I dread that I shall love him till I die." 



I said "Ah, give me this ! I shall not care 

*« What after-storms may beat, come blast and hail — 
*' Come all the ills that make the rest despair 

I shall not care ! '* 
I said " There is no good that can compare 

«' With this, that makes all other blessings pale, 
«* And if 1 lose e'en Heav'n, yet gain my pray'r . 

T shall not care I " 



" With thee conversing, I forget all time ; 
•'AH seasons, and their change, all please alike. 
«' Sweet is the breath of Morn, her rising sweet, 
«« With charm of earliest birds ; pleasant the Sun, 
*« When first on this delightful land he spreads 
«• His orient beams on herb, tree, fruit, and flower, 
** Glistening with dew ; fragrant the fertile Earth 
** After soft showers ; and sweet the coming on 
*' Of grateful Evening mild ; then silent Night 
*• With this her solemn bird, and this fair Moon, 
« And these the gems of Heaven, her starry train ; 
** But neither breath of Morn, when she ascends 
** With charm of earliest birds ; nor rising Sun 
** On this delightful land ;, nor herb, fruit, flower, 
** Glistening with dew ; nor fragrance after showers ; 
" Nor grateful Evening mild ; nor silent Night, 
** With this her solemn bird, nor walk by Moon, 
"Or glittering starlight, without thee, is sweet." 

Milton. 



IX. 



ONSTANCE had listen' d with attentive eai 
To this almost convincing argument 
Proving a woman's instabiHty 
Of heart and purpose ; but tho' pitying 
Sister Theresa and the Indian Judge, 
She would not own that the inconstancy 




176 Constance's Fate ; 

Of one weak woman, taught her firmer heart 

To feel less fond or less unfortunate. 

And then she thought, maybe, her kindly nurse 

Had only introduced this anecdote 

To change the dang'rous current of her thoughts 

Centred on Denzil. 

" But you did not say," 
She pleadingly resumed, " how to this place 
" So far away, so hidden from the world, 
" He turned his footsteps, and thus found me out ? 
Theresa told her then, in simple words. 
The hist'ry of the strange coincidence 
Of her first meeting Denzil ; it was thus : 

" When first you had the fever/' she began, 

" (I knew it but by chance, when passing here 

'• To beg your contribution for the poor 

" Your servants told me you were ill in bed ; ) 

" I sought your side, and found your English maid 

** Almost distracted with anxiety — 

" Not understanding what the doctor said, 

" And powerless to indicate her fears 

"Or )'our requirements ; so, she sat and wept, 

** Whrlst you were utt'ring wild delirious words 



ory Denzil Place, 177 

"At first they all seem'd meaningless to me, 

" But by and bye, a passionate appeal 

" To some one it was evident you lov'd 

" Named * Geoffrey ' warn'd me that you might commit 

" Some indiscretion of speech, and lest your maid 

" Should hear your words, I sent her from the room, 

" My pretext, that a fever such as your's 

" She too might sicken with, and be to you 

*' A mere incumbrance, rather than a help. 

*' 'Twas thus I came to be alone with you, 

" And then it was that all your random words 

" Of self-reproach, and those impassion'd names 

" You caird your absent lover, touch'd my heart 

" And told me half the truth ; and now I fear'd 

" To summon to your side your lawful lord 

*• Lest I should bring some dark avenging shape 

<' To what I guess' d might be your hidmg-place." 

(Here Constance could not help a furtive smile 

At the idea these passing words call'd up 

Of good Sir John, with rosy wrinkled face. 

In Hessian boots and gold-rimm'd spectacles, 

Who did not seem to answer to the name 

Of ' dark avenging shape.') 

The Nun went on — 
8* 



178 Constance' s Fate ; 

** But when I ask'd your inaid, I heard from her 

•* That he you raved of was your husband's friend 

" Seeming ahnost his son, — so well-belov'd, 

" By all your household honour'd and rever'd, 

*' And * Would that he were here ! ' the girl exclaim'd. 

*' So, thinking it were sad to die alone 

" (For then I trembled lest you might not live,) 

•' I wrote a letter to that absent one 

*' Of whom you raved ; I did not need to ask 

*' What name he bore, since o'er and o'er again 

" You moaned it in the watches of the night, 

" Beseeching you might see him once again — 

" I. soon discover'd also where he dwelt, 

" And praying God would pardon me the sin 

*' Of bringing thus two erring human beings 

*' Together, that one parting soul might speed 

" Peaceful and satisfied, (if both indeed 

" Had lov'd and err'd) I hastened to the town 

" Bearing my letter thither, and therein 

** I told of how you lay upon the brink 

" Of Death and darkness, and of how your lips 

*' Had oftentimes repeated o'er his name — 

" And how T heard he was your husband's fnend, 

** Of whom I only knew he was not here — 



ory Denzil Place, 1/9 

" And you were lonely ;— that from this I fear'd 
'" You might be shadow' d by some passing cloud 
" Of his displeasure— then I said to him 
" That he would know, and he would surely write 
" And solve what seem'd the myst'ry of your life, 
" And tell me how to act ; then full of doubts 
" I sign'd and seal'd it. 

" When I reach'd the post 
" I gave my letter that it might be weigh' d, 
" And as that lazy old Antonio, 
" (The bent, grey-bearded man— the man you know,) 
"Turn'd o'er the letter in his dirty hand, 
" He, spelling the direction, told me how 
"An Englishman had been that very day 
" Asking for letters to that self-same name — 
" I marvell'd much at such a strange event, 
"And learning where he sojourn' d, sought him out, 
" And it was truly he to whom I wrote, 
" His name was Geoffrey Denzil." 

" Say again," 
Cried Constance, wildly starting up in bed, 
" What was his name ? Repeat it once again, 
" I love to hear it from another's lips 
** The while I try to make myself believe 



l8o Constance's Fate ; 

*' 1 hear it for the first and only time — 

"And try to wonder how its sounds would seem 

'*Were it once more indifferent to me 

*• As when 1 had not known him ! but alas, 

" Tiiis is a kind of silly childish game 

" I play at, trWng to deceive my heart — 

'' In vain, in vain ! I cannot now recall 

" Even these few impressions of a Past 

•* In which he was not ! Tell me what he said 

" When first he knew I was so near to him, 

" And ill, and asking for him day and night ? " 

" Ah," said Theresa, " you were ill indeed 

" And near to death, or else you would have felt 

" His wild despairing kisses on your brow, 

*^ Your lips, your hair, your hands " 

*' What ! was he here, 
" Here in this very room ? " poor Constance cried 
Shock'd and bewilder'd, and yet glad at heart — 
" Yes, he seem'd mad, he would not be denied, 
" And I was weak — and you were so, so ill ! 

** Ah, how he loves you ! " 

Constance seem'd to feel 
A sudden rush of happiness and health. 



or^ Denzil Place. i8i 

" To-morrow I shall rise and dress," she said, 

"And feel as strong as felt my former self, 

'* And you will let him find me sitting there 

" Beside the window. I will see him once, 

" And thank him for his love, and say ' good-bye.* " 

*' Then you are strong indeed," the Sister said, 

" If half the world had strength for such ' good-byes 

" How far more blest the other half had been ! 

** How many had been happier, or unborn ! " 

Good-bye, good bye ! ah, easy little word 
When two fond, foolish lovers say it o'er, 
And make it but the plausible excuse 
To meet once more to say it once again ! 
Ah, sweet indeed those make-believe farewells, 
With that dear head on our too happy breast, 
And those sweet eyes the brighter for their tears, 
And that fond, flutt'ring heart, that starts and throbs, 
But will not break at any rate to-night ! 
Good-bye, good-bye ! and once again good-bye I 

But there arc real farewells, when haggard-eyed 
We stare all tearless, and with silent lips, 
At one who once has made c»ur life a dream 



1 82 Constance^ s Fate ; 

Of happiness, well knowing we must wake 

And live thro' bitter morrows ! These are times 

V^^en to our own deceitful selves we say 

*• This is real sorrow^ all that came before 

" Was but a mere delusive mockery, 

" Only assumed to make another sad, 

*' Or acted, as an actor plays a part 

*' For self-advancement ; — this is pain at heart, 

" This — this is desolation ! " 

Even thus 
Constance and Geoffrey felt that they could face 
And bear those false farewells of ev'ry day 
Whilst yet they fear'd to say that fatal word 
Which almost seem'd another name for death. 

She had indeed, in agitated tones, 

(With many timid glances at the door, 

As tho' she fear'd the eye of Miss I/Estrange,) 

Implor'd of Geoffrey Denzil to depart — 

And she had held his hand, and said ' good-bye ' 

And sad ' God-bless-yous,' and her eyes were wet, 

Yet Denzil did not leave her, for he said 

(Making his conscience readily his dupe, 

And almost in a voice of indignation,) 



or^ Denzil Place, 183 

"Hjw can I leave you in a foreign land, 

"Deserted, ill, and suffring, and for me 

" Bearing humiliation and disgrace ? 

*' The common laws of cold civility — 

** Humanity, — the merest loosest bond 

" Of careless passing friendship, would demand 

** That having met you here, by accident, 

" I stay at least till you are strong and well.'* 

And Constance, loving, temporising, weak, 

Had felt a burden lifted from her heart, 

And echo'd softly Geoffrey Denzil's words, 

*' When I am well . . ." and thus it was he st;iy'd 

How had they met ? Was Constance cold and stern, 

And Geoffrey like the Spartan youth of old 

Who nursed without complaint his gnawing fox ? 

I do not know exactly how they met — 

Perchance as mortals made of moulded ice. 

Without emotion, or as you or I 

Had met again, after suspense and doubt 

Our own true Jove, on an Italian eve, 

Alone, save for a little crescent moon 

No thicker than an eye-lash, or a " C" — 

(A waning moon, for when she first appears 



1 84 Constance^ s Fate ; 

She forms a sulky " C " that turns its back 
And will not be a letter, come what may, 
Whilst Denzil on this happy ev'ning saw 
On looking up, for very joy, to heav'n, 
Her dear initial shining in the sky 
Seeming to bid him hope !) 

Some weeks from then 
They sat together 'neath the spreading shade 
Of a thick twisted chestnut tree, with stem 
Of giant girth ; amongst the herbage green 
Were feeding parti- colour' d sheep and goats, 
And here and there were scatter' d moss-grown rocks, 
Fall'n from the shadowing mountain years ago, 
Seeming like lesser mountains, lately born, 
Uplifting pigmy peak and spur, that rose 
Piercing the velvet breast of Mother Earth. 
Here, far beyond the convent in the hills, 
The landscape wore a less Italian look, 
The ground was grassy as an English lawn, 
And the light-colour' d green of chestnut leaves 
Replaced the sombre olive. From the hills 
Two mountain torrents, free'd from Winter's thrall, 
Which erst had turn'd them into silent snow, 



or^ Denzil Place , 185 

As tbo* rejoicing in their liberty, 

Rusli'd headlong to the sea, and meeting here 

Mingled their waters, and triumphantly 

With noise, henceforth proclaim' d themselves a stream 

Of some importance, bearing as they did 

On their united tides the fallen trunks 

Which, higher up, the busy wood-cutters 

Sent without farther trouble to the town 

For sale and export. Wiih a thund'rous noise 

The floating corpses of departed trees 

Hurled down each shelving wat'ry precipice, 

Met the huge rocks which form' d the landing-place 

To some such other stair ; there paused a space. 

And then, envelop' d in a cloud of spray 

Once more awoke the echoes. 

Hitherto 
Constance had fear'd to seek this spot alone, 
Or even with the gay Italian girl 
Who led her mule ; for kind old Angela 
(Her gard'ner's wife,) had shown to her one day 
The shaggy skin of a devouring wolf 
Shot in this very place some years ago 
By a brave son of her' s who since had died, 
And Constance was a coward, dreading beasts 



1 86 Constance^ s Fate ; 

And birds of prey, and monsters of the deep, 
Far more than moral dangers, which no sword 
Or mortal's gun, however ably aim'd. 
Can stab or kill ; but God who made the heart 
Implants in each its diff'rent form of fear, 
And oftentimes we shun the lesser harm 
Yet coax some cunning danger to our breast 
Which, serpent-like, will sting our trusting heart 
Or foolish feeding hand ; — but now she felt 
No fear of mountain wolf or forest snake. 
Since he was near who was so brave and strong. 
For something in his presence there conve/d 
To her a sense of safety from all ill. 

Constance was working, and she did not speak. 
And Geoffrey, stretch' d full length upon the grass. 
Had just been reading, now he paused, and propped 
His small uplifted head upon his hand. 
And Constance felt his eloquent grey eyes 
Fixed on her own, which droop'd upon her work. 
He spoke at length, but did not speak of love, 
For it is possible to love, and lie 
Upjn the sward at the Beloved's feet, 
And yet give utt' ranee but to careless talk 



oVf Denzil Place. 187 

Of bird, or trae or flovv'r, or even things 

Seemingly more removed than these from love. 

Thus Denzil spoke, for by a mutual bond 

These two had bound themselves that whilst they stay'd 

Together in the South (he at the town, 

And she amongst the olives,) they would shun 

That fatal subject, and that they would be 

Dear and united friends and nothing more. 

They watch' d each other keenly, fearing lest 

One or the other should o'erpass the bounds, 

And proving himself (or /^<?rself) too weak, 

Should break the compact, — slave to mem'ries past 

Or to some dream of futures false and fair. 

But they had hitherto been true and stern — 
True to their stern resolve ; it may have been 
Because they felt that ev'ry little word 
Was brimming over with that subtle sense 
Apparent in their very breath, which tried 
To breathe of lawful things, and thus that theme 
Unutter'd, and yet always understood. 
They did not need to christen by its name, 
But as a fav'rite child is often call'd 
By one far less harmonious than its own, 



1 88 Constance's Fate ; 

From slieer excess of fondness, so they shunn'd 
Shame-faced and shy, the tell-tale name of " Love " 
Knowmg they lov'd too well ! 'Twas thus each word 
Seem'd but an ugly nickname for the one 
They dared not utter. But each understood. 
So when she said 

" Hark to that thund'ring sound J 
" Is it a coming storm or floating tree 
*' Striking against the rocks ? " then unto him 
Her words would seem to say — 

" Ah, I was frail I 
" I drifted with the tide — the headlong stream 
" Wreck'd me against a rock, yet I rejoice 
" To wreck upon a rock I love so well — 
" Alas, I love you — love you ! pity me 
" And love me as I love ! " And when he said 
Some trivial words like these, 

" Ah, do not fear, 
" No coming storm is clouding o'er the sky, 
•*'Tis but the floating timber which the stream 
** Is bearing to the sea," it seem'd to her 
As tho* he said — 

*' Ah, darling, do not fear 1 
" Foi I am strong as yonder rapid stream. 



OTy Denzil Place, 189 

" And I will bear you safely to the sea 

" Whither all journey ; put your trust in me 

*' And love me as I love." 

But ere they reach'd 
This seeming state of perfect self-control, 
There were so many problems to explain 
So that from time to time they were constrain'd 
To dwell upon the Past. How Geoffrey came 
To be alone at Denzil Place that night ? 
Why Constance, too, was waking at that hour ? 
The fragments of the letter she had found 
In Denzil's writing ? First, why Geoffrey came. 

He told her how a distant relative 
Had died, and he was sunimon'd to return 
To England, which he had but lately left ; 
How, on arriving there, he found some chance, 
(Some wish to spite the kinsman who till then 
Had hoped to be his heir,) had made him leave 
To Geoffrey Denzil half his property — 
How he, too sad to be rejoiced at this, 
(Since now he had surprised his fatal love, 
And made a vow that he would never harm 
Bui, keep as pure as is the driven snow 



190 Constance* s Fate; 

The mem'ry (>f his idol) — ^had resolved 

That, as he needs must visit Denzil Place, 

To take some papers from an iron safe, 

Relating to his new inheritance, 

He would not do so till the silent night — 

So, saying as a pretext, at the inn, 

That he desired they would not tell Sir John 

Of his arrival, lest the good old man 

Should deem he trespass' d, staying at the Hall 

When Denzil was in England ; he arranged 

To ride there when the household were in bed, 

Awaited only by his ancient nurse, 

Who, telling him the house was plunged in sleep, 

Had led him to the silent library 

And left him to his search ; the rest we know. 

His letter was a lover's rhapsody. 

To be deliver' d if his love surviv'd 

Her husband and himself; for in his heart 

Had lurk'd a wish that she might some day know 

How he had lov'd her once. Therein he told 

The guilty reason of his sudden flight, 

And after telling how he strove in vain 

To school his wayward heart, he wrote these words, 



or^ Denzil Place. 191 

Which Constance partly read at Denzil Place^ 
** That you should be another's — you who seem 
" Created to be mine in ev'ry sense 
" In which a woman may belong to man — 
" Whom, after all these waiting years, I meet 
" At last ; it almost seems too hard to bear, 
*' But so it is, and I must go from hence ! " 

Then Geoffrey spoke of strange affinities, 
And how a woman, meeting such a man, 
Reads on his brow that he is lord of her — 
The lover of her life ; and. how a man 
Who meets a certain maid (or e'en, alas I 
A certain matron,) murmurs to himself 
•* This is the woman who was made for me 
" To love and cherish ! " 

He reminded her 
What dress she wore the first time they had met ; 
And Constance, with a flutter at her heart, 
Remark'd how ev'ry detail was described, 
Omitting nothing. " It was all of white. 
The day was warm and sunny, and you stood 
Framed for awhile inside the open door, 
And looking like an angel — in your hand 



192 Constance's Fate ; 

You held your gloves and shady garden-hat — 

Your hair was knotted with a colour'd snood 

To suit the floating coral-colour'd sash 

That bound you, like a baby, round the waist, 

And then you spoke — ! You seem'd so young and fail 

That I, who then had neither care nor creed, 

A-dopted you at once as patron saint, 

A.nd afterwards — you know — " 

Then Constance sigh'd 
" With me^ I think it must have been the Fire 
" And seeing you so very near to death.". 
*' The Fire with 702/," said Denzil, "but with me 
" Not only fire, but ev'ry element — 
" Earth, Air, and Fire, and Water, all combined 
*' To tell me how I hunger'd for your heart 
" Long, long, before you told me it was mine ! 
" I said * Whatever comes I shall not care 
" If without harming her, I win her love ' — 
'* But when I thought my wicked lawless will 
*' Had wrought you harm, a prey to deep remorse 
" I fled in horror at my evil deed 
" And call'd myself a villain. 

" You were kind " 
(Constance had said) *' to spare my guilty soul 



or^ Denzil Place, 193 



" The pain of this reproach ; — I always fear'd 

" That )ou would taunt me, I, who must have seem'd 

" So prudish, and so full of texts and saws — 

" I fear'd that you would mock me, and exclaim 

" * Ah, hypocrite ! where is your wisdom now !' " 

" And you were also kind," said Denzil then, 

" To spare me, or, with that old Tiger-Cat 

" Who in her letter call'd me ' Atheist' 

"You might have deem'd it was ray lack of cant 

" That made me love you ; and once having lov'd 

" Stretch forth my robber-hand to steal my prize — 

" Look in your glass, and see what to have seen 

" Had conquer'd Christian Knight or Saracen — 

" There is no question of this creed or that 

" When once we kneel to Woman as to God ! " 

** A god of clay," said Constance with a sigh, 

" A shadow on a stream — a fleeting thing 

" Lasting whilst Beauty lasts—it dies with Death, 
" And blessed is that woman who may be 
" Fven a mem'ry ! " 

So the days pass'd by 
And thus these wicked people liv'd and lov'd. 
9 



You said to me, in that sad hour of parting, 

So much, so little, and yet ev'rything— 

My eager lips, so rudely interposing. 

Broke the soft sounds your own, maybe, had murmur*d 

In that dim hour of silence ! Tho' of sorrow 

It seem'd the cup was fiU'd to overflowing 

I could not weep, for joy at being near you. 

And guessing all the words you left unspoken, — 

So much— so little— and yet ev'rything ! 

You gave to me, on that dear night of parting, 

So much, so little, and yet ev'rything— 

So little to the hunger of my longing — 

So much to meet the measure of deserving, 

And ev'rything of heaven in a moment — 

Oh, cruel Time ! oh, midnight chimes that sounded I 

Yet, in your arms, how dared I curse the moments 

Which brought with all their dread of desolation 

So much, so little, and yet ev'rything? 

You seem'd to me in that last hour of parting 

So much, so little, and yet ev'rything — 

* So much, so little!' . . . Loving, yet divided 

For ever from me :— in the hated future 

Link'd with another ;— madly lov'd — * not wisely,' 

Met all too late, and lending love and sunshine 

And all delight, and leaving, (had you left me,) 

Only a memory of vanish'd beauty 

To be to me for ever and for ever, 

So much, so little, and yet ev'rything I 



«« Rappelle-toi, lorsque les destinees 

M'auront de toi pour jamais separee, 
Quand le chagrin, I'exil et les annees 

Auront fletri ce coeur desespere, 
Songe k mon triste amour, songe kl' adieu supreme; 
L'absence ni le temps ne sont rien quand on aime ; 
Tant que mon coeur battra 
Toujours il te dira 

Rappelle-toi." 

Alfred DE MussET. 

«* Oil, my love! my love ! 
«' Have we now reach'd the end of these dear groves? 
** Shall we together walk no more thro' life ? 
*« The arid desert stretches out beyond ; 
" Across it lies a pathway rougli with stones 
«* And edged with tangled briars. No grateful shade, 
** No grassy banks afford the Traveller rest, 
" And thou would'st have me wander there alone, 
" An outcast from our garden Paradise, 
** And far from thee, my love, my soul's delight 1 

H. P. CAMrBELL. 

X. 

r length arrived those last unwelcome days 
Which heralded that last sad day of all, 
When those who, haply, never should have 
met. 
Felt bound in honour, or, to say farewell, 
Or else to let the angry world go by 
And cling together ; she to bear the shame, 




198 Constance's Fate ; 

And he the keen reproach of having caused 

Such shame in her. For Constance, who was A^eak, 

And influenced above all influence 

]Jy him she lov'd, had deem'd it would be best 

(Now she could never more on bended knee 

Appeal to God but as a guilty thing,) 

That she should honestly avow her love, 

And live to be his wife, at least in heart, 

Who vow'd to her his hfe's fidelity. 

Often in vain she look'd across the sea 

When Denzil left her at the ev'ning hour. 

Hoping to read upon the pink expanse 

Some sign or symbol telling how to act. 

She often long'd to open wide her arms 

And say to Denzil, " Geofliey, I am your's 

" In life — in death ! " if it were but to see 

The cloud uplift which shrouded that dear brow I 

But, as he left those happy olive-grounds. 

And ere he vaulted o'er the boundary 

Dividing town from country, 'neath the shade 

Sister Theresa, in her quiet dress 

Would glide in silence thro* the garden gate, 

And seeking Constance, in an earnest voice 



oTy Denzil Place, 199 

Would strive to exorcise the sinful thought. 
And seem to treat the sacred name of Love 
As a mere thing of naught — a childish thing. 

" There are some moments in our lives " she said 

" When we can almost see (both seem so plain !) 

*' The fair good angels pointing out one way, 

" And on the other side the pow'rs of hell 

" Who strive to drag us trembling to the brink 

*' Of some abyss ! Not that I deem your friend," 

(She added, in a calm prosaic tone,) 

'' Poor Mr. Denzil, who seems kind at heart, 

" A demon in disguise, but lawless love 

" Must needs assume to all discerning eyes 

" A shape of dread, a form to be abhorred." 

" And are not lack of candour and deceit," 
Constance exclaim' d, " two things to be abhorred ? 
*' And dwelling underneath a shelt'ring roof 
" Respected, when you have not earn'd respect, 
'' And living as a wife with one you wrong — 
" Next him at night, and near him all the diy, 
" And longing all those nights and all those days 
" For but one glimpse of one sad absent face, 



200 Constance's Fate ; 

"Are these not also things to be abhorred ? 

" Methinks I could return to Farleigh Court, 

" If I might hide away amongst the woods, 

** And pray, and read good books, and nurse a skull 

" Like yon sweet picture of the Magdalen — 

** But to go back to him who knows my fault, 

" And screens me out of kindness from the scorn 

** Our country neighbours would but be too glad 

" To show'r upon me ! They must guess the truth,— 

" From what the sister of my husband said 

*' They even knew it long before myself — 

" I know not which would be the worst to bear, 

"My husband's kind forbearance, or the sneers 

" Of those who, whilst they flatter'd to my face 

" Would whisper cruel words behind my back — 

" And then I never could see Geoff j^ey more — • 

" It will be hard to bear ! " 

Now this was how 
It came to pass that Constance dream' i at all 
Of leaving Italy and going home. 

Roland L' Estrange had written to her twice— 
At first, a school-boy letter, full of tales 
Of work and holiday, yet such good will 



or, Denzil Place, 201 

Was shown in every simple blotted line, 

That Constance knew Sir John had kept his word, 

And had not tried to influence his son 

Against his erring wife. 

" My father's hanp 
" Is crippled with the gout, he begs me say " 
The letter ran,) "or he would write himself." 
From gratitude, Constance had rashly sent 
When next she wrote, a timid message back, 
Hoping the crippled hand was nearly well — 
Whereat, another letter from the boy 
Had plainly ask'd of Constance to return. 

For, all went wrong, he said, now she was gor e— 
The servants left — his aunt was, oh, so cross I 
She finally had quarrell'd with Sir John 
And left him all alone to grief and gout — 
His father said all luck had left the house 
Since she was taken ill and went abroad 1 

Then, lastly came a letter from Sir John 
Entreating her return, and " All the Past 
Should be forgotten," only she must come ; 
And both these letters had for many days 

9* 



202 Comtance's Fate ; 

Remain'd unanswer'd, whilst poor Constance felt 
Torn, or by fiends and angels, or by Love 
And sterner Duty, first this way or that, 
Whilst all her mind, and all her anxious heart 
Were tortured and bewildei-'d by the thought 
Of what her final answer ought to be 
When ev'rybody's welfare seem'd to her 
So much at variance ! 

Then to the winds 
Did Geoffrey Denzil fling his good resolves, 
And madden'd at the dread of losing her 
He strove with might and main to make her stay 
Until Sir John might hear the scandal breathed 
And drive her from him into Denzil' s arms 
To be his very own for evermore. 

•* I swear if any child were born of you,'* 
He said to her one balmy afternoon, 
**I would not press you, Constance, but you leave- 
" In leaving home for me, what do you leave ? 
'* A kind old man, but he can be replaced — 
" You cannot even know the pleasant pang 
"A bride may feel, who leaves the bving breasl 
" Of her fond mother for the folding arms 



or, Denzil Place. 203 

" Of her Belov'd; — ^you are not kith or kin, 

" But mated by mischance, who might have been 

" Father and daughter, child and grandfather— 

*' The long, dull years that seem your married days, 

" To him are but a little speck of time — 

" A fleeting moment in an old man's life 

" Who liv'd and lov'd long, long ere you were born ! 

" Ah, he may miss you, as those fathers miss 

" Or as those grandfathers, a two years' child, 

" But think of what we are ! Friends — friends till death, 

" And lovers — loving till this heart of mine 

" Ceases to beat, and husband, dear, and wife, 

" If you will let me call you by that name 

" And wear my ring upon your little hand. 

" I say again, if round about your knees 

" Were rosy faces grouped, and tiny hands 

" And piping voices, ever and anon 

" Clasping and calling you to stay at home, 

** I had been base indeed to bid you stray 

"And leave for me those sunny little heads 

"But«^a/ /" 

(Here Constance press'd against het brow 
A trembling hand, whilst with the other one 



204 Constance's Fate ; 

She gently push'd away her tempter's lips, 
And tried to think he was a " Pow'r of Hell.") 

** Nay, 1 would rather," Denzil wildly cried, 
*' Much as I loathe the superstitious creed 
" That dooms a woman to a life unlov'd 
** Of penance and seclusion, that you went 
"And prison'd your sweet youth within the walls 
" Of yonder convent, than that you should go 
*' Seeking yourself, and of your own free will 
" The hateful life you used to live before ! " 
Then soften'd by her scared bewilder'd look, 
He added, " I am mad, and seem to you 
'* To utter foolish words ; — do what is best 
" For you, my darling ; should you feel one day 
"The bitterness of parting with all joy ^ 
*' (Such as I feel to-day), come back to me 
" And we will try to make, despite the World, 
"A new fair life together ; I shall waitP 

Thus torn and tortured with conflicting doubts 
Did Constance travel thro' these latter days 
(For such she deeni'd they were,) in Italy. 
Her lover's passionate entreaties now 



oVy Dcjtzil Place. 205 

Tearing her gentle heart ; and then the Nun's, 
Who seemed to see to ev'ry compHcation 
One only answer, one sure remedy 
Against the Future's perils, and implored 
That she would forthwith give herself to God, 
And, *' 'prison her sweet youth " (as Denzil said) 
Within the quiet convent in the hills. 

From no vain wish to be " sensational " 

Or blend into her Hfe the picturesque 

And hollow- teachings of an alien creed, 

Did Constance entertain the wav'ring thought 

Of yielding to the Sister's stern advice. 

She knew that there were many knotty points 

Of doubt and darkness she must overcome — 

That many new convictions should be born, 

And many old associations slain, 

Ere she could honestly embrace a faith 

In which she was not born ; but then she thought 

A calm devotional life of high intent, 

Must needs be pleasing in the eyes of God 

By whatsoever name its votaries 

Were call'd and recognized throughout the earth; 

Also, within her bosom, next her love, 



2o6 Constance' s Fate ; 

LiVd that unutt'rable desire for rest^ 

Known only unto those whose hapless fate 

lias ever been to battle with the waves, 

When they would fain have waited on the shore, 

Nor e'er adventured on the stormy seas. 

So, thus they stood — she purposed to return 

To Farleigh Court, to see Sir John once more 

And try to bear the life she once had borne ; 

But should she prove too burden' d with her Past 

To live such life in peace and honesty, 

Then she would bid farewell to all the world, 

And seeking once again this sunny clime. 

Would try and live, as liv'd of old the saints, 

A life of penitence and piety — 

And should this life, after the 'portion'd time 

From lack of faith, seem all too hard to bear, .... 

" Then,'" Denzil cried, " tho' there are convent walls 

"Yet there are those who fain would scale and climb 

" E'en higher walls, to bear away from thence 

" Their only happiness ! " 

So, of these ways — 
The three opposing pathways left to tread — 
Constance had tried to follow first the best, 
If not the brightest ; whilst that sunny line 



or, Denzil Place. 207 

Of flower-spangled path, she strove to shun 
Even in fancy. 

Then the days slipp'd by 
And Geoffrey Denzil was an alter' d man. 
Haggard and desperate, and full of fears, 
And Constance too, was pale and wan, and felt 
Against her heart a weary gnawing pain ; 
And thus arose the sun upon the day 
Before the one when they were doom'd to part. 

Sad and remorseful, Constance mark'd the change 

Her resolution wrought in Denzil' s face 

And voice and bearing, and she wonder' d much 

How any one so weak and frail as she 

Could thus subdue and conquer one so strong, 

Who ne'er had seem'd disturb'd by sjreater things. 

On this last day, about the sunset hour 

They wander' d forth together, each one sa 1, 

Pre-occupied and silent ; as they walk'd 

Their thoughts went winging o'er the glittering sea 

Homeward to England, and they liv'd again 

In fancy, thro' that night at Deniil Place, 



2o8 Constance's Fate; 

Which seem'd to mark an epoch in their fate. 

I know not if 'twas wholly with remorse 

That Denzil mused upon those midnight hours 

Which gave to him the woman of his dreams, ^. 

Or whether even Constance, as she gazed 

Into the eyes of him she lov'd so well, 

Felt all the anguish she had known before 

At having once been ev'rything to one 

To whom, alas, she soon would be as naught 

Save a fair clinging memory ! 

At first 
They bent their way towards the neighb'ring town, 
And stroll'd mechanically down the quay, 
-And saw and heard, as in a waking dream, 
The sights and sounds around them, all the while 
Feeling like beings from some other sphere 
Dropp'd down from cloud-land. Ev'rything they saw 
On this too mournful day seem'd so distinct 
And yet so lifeless, since these lookers-on 
Had concentrated all they own'd of life 
On one another ; so like changing scenes 
Painted upon a magic lantern's slides 
All seem'd a mockery, yet afterwards 
Recurred to them each passing sight they saw 



or^ Denzil Place, 209 

On that last day, and that sad parting night, 
With haunting vividness. 

Upon the strand 
The red-capp'd fishermen — the idle throng 
Of chatt'ring beggars standing on the bridge, 
The peasant-women in their shady hats 
Guarding their fragrant store of fruit and flow'rs 
Beside the market-cross. Then in the streets 
The gaily colour'd awn\ngs, shadowing 
The windows bright with rich Italian wares, 
The gold and silver works in filigree, 
The shining coral, carv'd fn many shapes — 
Then grouped in twos and threes about the port 
Some few departing townspeople were seen. 
Bound for a neighb'ring city ; two who seem'd 
To part in sorrow, since with many sighs 
They clung and wept, a maiden and a youth. 
Doubtless affianced, for, before the hour 
When rang the signal for the speeding boat 
To bear the youth away from her he lov'd, 
They traced upon a dusty prickly-pear 
The link'd initials of their hapless names; 
Then, to the left, another couple stood 
Taking their leave ; two shovel-hatted priests, 



2IO Constance's Fate ; 

Who, following the custom of the South, 
Were taking snuff and kissing one another, 
And op'ning wide their black embracing arms. 
A little further, on the other side, 
The town became a straggling colony 
Of painted villas, — here they saw a goat 
Standing in biped-fashion, on a wall. 
Reaching his greedy, shaggy-bearded mouth 
Towards the blossoms of a Judfas-tree 
All pink and leafless, looking as he stood 
As one might deem the false Apostle look'd 
With russet beard, his God-forsaken gaze 
Seeking some branch of a sufficient strength 
Whereon to hang himself, (for Rumour saitli 
From some such pink pre-destin'd gallows-tree 
Swung, long ago, the suicided form 
Of the accursed Jew, Iscariot, 
Who thus escaped the torments of remorse 
Earn'd by his base betrayal of the Christ.) 

Thus wand* ring listlessly, they reach' d at last 
A garden they had often sought before, 
Where Constance used to sketch, for here it seem'd 
That Nature, Art, and Past and Present join'd 



OTy Denzil Place. 211 

To make an earthly Eden ; — it had been 
Long years ago, a Roman residence 
Of some importance, and tho' ruined now 
And desolate, its beauty still survived 
To lure all lovers of the picturesque. 

Here stately terraces of sculptured stone 
Look'd seaward, where against the ev'ning sky 
The marble statues of forgotten gods 
Uprose alternately with flow'ry urns 
O'errun with clematis ; from thence a walk, 
Dark and mysterious e'en at noon-tide heat, 
But now a seeming subterranean arch 
Of arbutus and bay-trees, led the way 
Towards a small pavilion, ruin'd too 
And long ago deserted. 

Geoffrey turn'd 
Uncheck'd by Constance, down this dim arcade 
Where now and then a moonbeam sifted thro' 
The mingling branches, threw a silv'ry streak 
On the untended path, and but for which 
They scarce had seen their way, and could but feel 
The scarlet berries of the arbutus 
Which roll'd like coral beads about their feet. 



212 Consiaftces Fate, 

Here was a bench, built in a stone recess 
O'ertraced with scroll-work, near the grey remains 
Of what had been of yore a Roman bath, 
Where Constance, who was weary with her walk, 
Sank down exhausted — Denzil held her hand, 
And both were silent, for their hearts were full.- 

(Deem it not strange that they should roam so late 
Fair reader, who hast never left thy home 
After the few first flittings of the bat ! 
For, where the sun is lavish with his beams 
As in these southern lands, this is the hour 
When those who dread his fierce meridian heat, 
Go forth, approved by custom, 'neath the rays 
Of a more temperate planet ; hence they stay'd.) 

Upon the terrace, like a row of ghosts, 
They saw the moonlit glories of the past 
Silv'ry and silent, and from time to time 
Some echo reach'd them wafted from the to^vn 
Of song or music, but thtise died away 
At last, in silence, and the croaking frogs, 
And now and then a falling leaf or fruit, 
Or the clear piping of a nightingale, 
Alone recall' d their spirits back to earth. 



or^ Denzil Place. 213 

For both seem'd lost in some absorbing dream 

Impossible to utter or translate 

Into material language ; thus for hours 

They scarcely spoke, until they heard the chimes , 

Of midnight echo from the noisy spires 

Of all the many churches of the town. 

Then Constance, frighten'd at the flight of time, 
Would fain have hurried to her quiet home, 
But ere she rose, the ghastly haunting dread 
That this might be her last and only hope 
Of playing truant thus, induced her still 
A Httle while to linger : Denzil then 
Awaking from his mournful reverie, 
Held fast her hands, as one in shipwreck clings 
To spar or mast, or as a miser grasps 
Some cherish' d treasure he is soon to lose, 
Whilst all the pent-up anguish in his heart 
He strove to ease by his impassion'd words 
Of love and mad reproach, for by those chimes 
He knew how soon they needs must say farewell 

Ah, if in that despairing parting hour 

AH the wild grief they felt at sev'ring thus, 



214 Constance' s Fate ; 

Or all the bliss at being side by side — 

If their warm youth, and the delicious South, 

And ev'ry soft intoxicating sound 

Breathing of amorous and intensest Hfe 

Fed with sweet odours ; — if all this conspired 

To vanquish their too sternly sterile vows — 

If ev'ry little faint malicious flow'r, 

And ev'ry cunning little croaking frog — 

And ev'ry happy hanging orange-orb 

And tender bridal-bud, — if all these seem'd 

But small familiar eclioes from the voice 

Of Nature, which invited them to join 

In her regardless self-abandonment, 

So doubly dangerous when both the hearts 

That beat in unison, love with a love 

Which * passeth knowledge,' if — but wherefore muse 

On that which Night, and Solitude, and Love 

Witness'd alone ? unless the cypress too, 

Or dark arbutus, with its scarlet fruit, 

May silently have listen'd to their vows 

Or shuddei-'d at their long, forbidden kiss ! — 

These folded in their dim mysterious shade 

The two poor lovers, as they sought the town^ 

Clinging together sadly to the last, 



or, Denzil Place. 215 

Or arm in arm, or ho'.ding hand in hand 
Like little children. 

Down the walk they pass'd; 
The East was red, and speeding on the wings 
Of Destiny, they saw the boding signs 
Of dread To-morrow. Near the fading moon 
Their enemy lay blushing o'er tte hills. 



To my heart I waking, say 

« This must be Love " 
As the first struggling ray 
Of the too happy day 

Peeps from above. 

** Ah, this must be Love," I sigh 

When the dim light 
Fades from the western sky. 
And the far mountains lie 

Wrapp'd in the night. 

If thou had'st not dawn'd, oh Day I 

Then, blessed Night, 
Thou had'st endured for aye, 
Stay, night of kisses, stay I 

Veil out the light ! 

If thou had'st not darken'd. Night, 

Then, happy Day, 
Thou had'st shone long and bright. 
Fleet day of dear delight 

Fade not away ! 

Oh, Night ! to thy sister. Day, 

Reach out thy wand. 
Thou dost know, thou can'st say 
Why I would have you stay 

Thus hand in hand I 

Thou can'st say, for thou dost know,- 

Night, tell to Day 
Why thy dim moments flow 
Warm'd with a warmer glow 

Than sun-lit ray I 
lO 



Oh, Day ! whisper unto Night 

All thou hast known, 
When, 'neath thy sun and shade 
Fleeter hours Love has made 

E'en than thine own I 

Night and Day! whilst you can hold 

Joy like to this, 
Dear is the black and gold 
Of your soft wings that fold 

Me to his kiss. 

But, when mingled sun and shade 

Bring me no more 
Flowers like those that made 
All other blossoms fade 

Their light before. 

Weave then for thy brows of light 

A cypress wreath. 
Day, that wert once so briglitl 
Darken to Night, and Night I 

Fade into Death I 



*' And we are man and wife together 
Altho' thy breast, once bold 
With song, be closed and cold 
Beneath flowers' roots and birds' light feet." 

J. L. Beddoes.. 

** Se voir le plus possible, et s'aimer seulement. 
Sans ruse et sans detours, sans honte ni mensonge. 
Sans qu'un desir nous trompe ou qu'un remords nous ronge 

Vivre a deux et donner son coeur a tout moment." 

Alfred de Musset. 



XI. 




^|EIEN Constance rose at morn 'twas not from 
sleep, 
But from a dreary hopeless contemplation 
Of the most glorious sunrise. (That same sun 
Would rise and set, but never more, maybe, 
Cast two fond clinging shadows on the path 
That two misguided mortals never more 
Might tread together in the coming years !) 



220 Constance' s Fate ; 

*' Ah, cruel herald of a hapless morn ! " 

She thought with achmg heart, " Of what a /ail 

*■'■ For me, yon flaunting gorgeous display 

*' Of pink and gold and primrose, since your rays 

" Are destin'd soon to light me from my love ? " 

It was as tho' the sympathetic sun 

Had guessed her thought, for as the hour approach'd 

When she departed from her flow'ry home, 

He shrouded o'er the glory of his face, 

And Geoffrey Denzil drove her to the town 

Wrapped in her cloak, on quite an English day 

Of mist and rain. All look'd so different, 

And seem'd so doubly gloomy and forlorn 

From long association with the sun — 

She thought the day assumed a widow'' d look 

Which harmonized with what her aching heart 

Could now no longer hide. 

Thus to tlie strand 
They went together. Shelter' d from the rain 
She waited there, and watch' d the dreaded boat 
Lying against the stone-work of the port, 
Its palpitating engine now and then 
Hissing and smoking, whilst upon the deck 
The bales and baggage of the passengers 



or^ Denzil Place, 221 

I^ay strewn in wiUl confusion. Denzil rose 

And left hei side to help her English maid, 

VV^ho, being ignorant of foreign speech, 

Was almost helpless \ — as he thus explain'd 

And cater'd for the comfort of the maid 

And her fair mistress, some one touched his arm — 

He turn'd and saw the sunburnt gardener 

Belonging to the villa Belvedere, 

Who held a written message, ominous 

With the dark cover of a telegram — 

It was for Constance, but the worthy man 

Link'd her with Denzil in his artless mind, 

And innocently thought that what was her's 

Must surely be of interest to him. 

And he was right, for never written words 
Sent such a thrill thro' Geoffrey Denzil's heart 
As these few lines which flutter'd to the ground 
Dropped from poor Constance's wan, nerveless hand 

The message was from Roland, and ran thus — 
" My father's horse, on Monday afternoon, 
*' Stumbled and threw him, and he died to-day." 
They did not speak — but thro' each startled brain 



222 Constance's Fate ; 

Rush'd an unutterable flood of thoughts 
Conflicting, — unexpected, love, remorse, 
Astonishment, and the delirious hope 
Of an unhoped-for Future ! . . . . 



Now, in truth, 
Who would have thought Sir John L' Estrange' s cob, 
That trusty, confidential animal. 
Would throw his rider, or that being thrown 
Poor dear Sir John would never rise again ! 
But so it was ; — with little tufted tail 
Uprais'd in air, and quick awak'ning ears 
Over the purple heather, unperceived. 
Bounded away, to lay some other snare 
The real malefactor ; soft and grey, 
A little downy rabbit, with no guile. 
Or thought of all the changes that ensued 
Because he bored his little hermit's hole 
Just where Sir John L'Estrange's horse would tread, 
Making that pleasant Monday afternoon 
Sir John's last Monday in this world of sin, — 
So full of snares, to count from rabbit-holes 
Upwards, to those worse perils to the soul, 
Which good Sir John, who liv'd a worthy life 



oVy Denzil Place, 223 

Had ne'er encounter'd in his easy road — 

For the jog-trotting of his trusted cob 

Was emblematic of the quiet pace 

With which he journey'd through the peaceful days 

Ere Constance went abroad. 

So, he was gone 
The kind old man with rosy apple cheeks, 
And never more his " Ultra- Tory eye " 
Will note the signs of danger from afar — 
And we must hope that he has gone to dwell 
Where all is order'd as he would approve, — 
An absolute perpetual monarchy, 
Where the Great Autocrat is King of Kings, 
And where the subjects know no tyranny 
Save the just guidance of a Father's hand. 



In two short years from that eventful day, 
Beneath the shade of scented orange boughs 
And flow' ring myrtles, near a cypress tree 
Clung round with roses, Constance sat and mused 
In a fair garden. Hers were blissful dreams, 
And from her heart a never-ending hymn 
Of gratitude and praise rose up to heaVn — 



224 Constance's Fate ; 

Above the feath'ry palms and calm blue sky 
Reflected in the glitt'ring tideless sea. 

For time had made her Geoffrey Denzil's wife, 

And she was once again in Italy — 

Nor did this sacred second marriage-ring 

Encircling her slight finger, exorcise 

(As rings, alas ! have oft been known to do !) 

Aught of the tenderness she felt before 

When it was bitterness and shame to love. 

And Denzil, with his independent heart 

Scorning the laws and customs of the world 

Learnt it was not alone the guilty zest 

With which some natures seek forbidden fruit 

That heretofore had made him deem he lov'd. 

For now that they were lawful man and wife 

The love he felt for her intensified 

And deepen'd with the days — the happy days ! 

And with these days were blerided happy nights— 

Oh, bless'd experience, but to few vouchsafed ! 

The treble unity of heart and mind 

And all those pulses of material life. 

Which throb in harmony to one great end — 



OTy Denzil Place. 225 

The sweet, perpetual intermingling 

Of sense and soul,— the mutual interchange 

Of all that each can render — each receive ! 

Oh, for but half a year of such a dream 

How willingly would I exchange the rest — • 

Those future years of loveless solitude 

Which Heaven may predestine me to live ! 

For days which darken into blissful nights 

When, heart to heart, in one another's arms 

We sink not into blank forgetfulness, 

Since e'en in sleep the senses realize 

The sacred presence of our best belov'd ! 

For nights that fade into the happy dawn 

When, after this sweet half unconsciousness, 

We wake to know we were not duped by dreams, 

But that we hold against our grateful heart 

Our dearest treasure ! oh, for days and nights 

Such as I sometimes dream of, give me grief 

And after-pangs of bitter suffering, 

But let me glory in the unknown joy 

Of some such days and nights before I die I 

*' Ah," Denzil said, '' how had I pray'd for this, 

•* But that I never proved an answer' d pray'r I 
10* 



226 Constance' s Fate ; 

" This is the iirst great undeserved reward 
" That God has giv'n me in my restless Hfe 
** Of doubt and speculation." 

Constance sigh'd 
" Till now I also said indeed the words, 
" Playing with hands and lips, but in my heart 
*' I fear I did not dare anticipate 
"Any fulfilment! Then, alas, I know 
" I always pray'd for very earthly things — 
"That I might be belov'd, — that one might live 
" Whom God, in his high wisdom doom'd to die— 
" That I may have a daughter or a son — 
*' Such pigmy wishes, look'd at from High Heav'n ! 
" 'Tis right we should not always have our way — 
" And then again, I pray'd another pray'r — 
" I pray'd I might resist the pow'r you gain'd 
" Over my heart, I felt it more and more 
*'As days went on ; that pray'r seem'd never heard,* 
She dropp'd her eyes, and blushing, sigh'd anew, 
But he repeated all triumphantly 
Her murmur'd words, " That pray'r was nevei 
heard ! " 

" Ah, unregenerate ! will you always doubt ? 



or, Denzil Place. 227 



" And yet," she added, grasping at a straw, 

** You know at any rate, pray'r does no harm^ 

" If wasted, it is wasted, but the air 

" Is all the purer for our purer thought — 

" It is no superstition that .degrades 

<' Like some that men have foUow'd long ago — 

" I feel so grateful when I see the sun 

*' Shining as now, on such a lovely scene — 

" My inward intimate existence yearns 

''To give some proof of gratitude to God 

" And so to Him I lift my heart in pray'r." 

And thus the days went on, until at last 
One of the little pray'rs that Constance pra/d 
Was granted to her, and her grateful heart 
Began to realize the long'd-for bliss 
Of knowing that some soul begotten ray 
Of hght and life, intense— intangible- 
Meeting with Denzil' s warm impatient lips 
In those dear days and those mysterious nights, 
Had wrought in her that wond'rous miracle, 
Ever recurring, yet for ever new, 
Incomprehensible and beautiful, — 
That inexplicable, sweet incarnation 



228 Coti stance's Fate. 

Of two -fold love, first-felt, a flutt'ring hope 
Faint as the plash of muffled elfin oars 
In some unfathomable mystic lake. 
Or as the fancied murmur of the waves 
To one who has been dreaming of the sea. 



Ah, my own love I The years may pasi^ 
The Winter and the Summer days, 
The city's fog, the dreamy haze 

That hovers o'er the country grass 

Hanging betwixt the earth and sky 
When black against its pink and gold 
At eventide, the trees enroll' d 

Stand like some dark conspiracy ; 

Sable accomplices of Night 

In the forced murder she has done. 
Helping to hide the dying sun 

Dragg'd down from his imperial height 

And sinking in his gory bed 

My love ! all hours and days may go 
And leave no trace, yet in the glow 

Of dying suns, and moons that shed 

A calmer light ; and in the stars 
And indefatigable waves, 
And in the faint gold streak that laves 

The last forsaken ocean bars — 

There art thou ever ; all in vain 
I ask some sign of life from thee 
Yet I believe thou liv'st to me 

In all I love in life, again. 

And somewhere, in land, sky or sea, 
I have a hope I cannot kill 
That there my loving or my will 

May give thee back again to me I 



" God is folding up the white tent of my youth." 



'* It is too late, too late ! 

** Vou may not kiss back my breath to the sunshine," 

Adah I. Menken 



' We know not whether death be good, 

But life at least it will not be ; 
Men will stand saddening as we stood, 
Watch the same fields and sky as we 
And the same sea." 

Swinburne. 



XII. 

[las, I would in this uncertain world 
All prosper' d where it seem'd that all went well! 
I would that never without urgent cause, 
Those who are bless'd and loving, wronging none, 
Should, as it were, be cheated of their dues 
And robb'd by Fate of their hard-earn' d content. 
There are some good and worthy on the earth 




232 Constance s Fate ; 

But who seem destin'd for some hidden end 

To be for ever spokes in ev'ry wheel — 

Encumbrances in ev'rybody's path — 

The millstones of the world, of sterling stuff 

But wearisome to wear around the neck — 

That these the great tho' too impatient gods 

Should sometimes prematurely set aside 

I do not wonder, knowing it is hard 

In this vast varying community 

To be alike benevolent to all 

Or satisfy the cravings of all hearts. 

So, when Sir John met such a sudden doom 

It almost seem'd as if the Fates had said 

" Here is an honest, red-faced kind old man 

" Who never has done harm to any one — 

" But yet, because of bungling human laws' 

*' He stands for ever, whilst he lives and breathes 

" As an insuperable obstacle, 

" Marring the moments of that luckless pair 

" Whose vast capacity for happiness 

* He blights unwittingly." 

And then it seem'd 
As if the three relentless beldames plann'd, 



or, Denzil Place. 233 

And caused the little guileless downy beast 
To burrow near that Sussex highway road. 

Now, when this worthy man was sacrificed, 

1 was ashamed I could not sorrow more, 

But, feehng as it were ' behind the scenes.' 

I thought " Well, well, since some one must have died 

(For Death intrudes in fiction as in fact,) 

I almost think he can be spared the best — 

So now they will be happy all their lives ! 

And I may tell of how they liv'd and lov'd, 

And how they henceforth kept the decalogue 

And died respected at a ripe old age ! 

But Life is stranger in its chequer' d course 
Than aught that ever fancy taught or feign' d— 
There are injustices, and ups and downs. 
And strange 'caprices on the part of Fate 
Which seem to us most inexplicable • 
And sad and hopeless ! 

So, Sir John was dead, 
And Constance married to the man she lov'd, 
For whom she sinad and suffer'd years ago, 
And Geoffrey lov'd her, and the fleeting days 



2 34 Constance' s Fate ; 

To them were as a blessed gliiupse of heav'n, 

And Denzil, who had been a sceptic once, 

Felt in his soul the germs of Faith and Love 

Upspringing frcm his earnest gratitude 

To that great Pow'r he recognized at last, 

And Constance knew that near her heart the flow'r 

Of their united love lay folded close 

In dreamless slumber, destin'd soon to breathe 

The fragrant air that she and Geoffrey breathed 

Together, in those fleeting wedded days. 

But she had rashly said •'' Ah, let me live 

" Only to know this blessed hope is true, 

*' Then conie what may," and her unthinking words 

Were register'd by the relentless Fates. — 

The day she long'd and pray'd for dawn'd at last, 

And Constance kiss'd the cheek of Geoffrey's child, 

And he was near her, but no time was given 

Him to rejoice in what she deem'd a joy, 

For in her struggle with this second life 

His little wife pass'd from him into death. 

Half stupefied he watch' d her lying there 
So calm and still, who but some hours ago 
Was warm with life ; — so sudden it all seem'd, — ■ 



OTy Denzil Place, 23$ 

The words we say at parting left unsaid, 
And round about him all the many things 
Inanimate, yet seeming now to cry 
With eager voices, ** No, she is not dead 1 " 
All in a row the little high-heel'd shoes 
Those fairy feet would never wear again, — 
Upon a chair her hat and parasol, 
Whilst the white dress she Wore but yesterday 
Was flutt'ring in the flower scented air 
From where it hung upon the looking-glass— 
The glass that never more would mirror back 
That well-known earnest face, for she was dead I 

Sooner than here in England, dawn'd that day 
Of desolation, when upon the stair 
Sounded the grating footsteps of strange men, 
The sable-suited myrmidons of Death, 
Coming to bear away that silent form 
And hide it from the watching of wet eyes. 

Geoffrey was sitting in the shrouded room. 
Gazing with haggard eyes and bloodless lips 
On the sweet face of what was Constance once— 
As one entranced, he scarcely realized 



236 Constance' s Fate ; 

This new and terrible calamity ; 

But when he heard strange voices in the hoiise, 

Guessing their ghastly meaning, from his breast 

Escaped a stifled groan of agony, 

And all his soul in startled consciousness 

Awoke to know the greatest of all griefs 

Had fall'n upon him ; then he wildly cried — ■ 

" Ah, dear and lovely face of her I love ! 

" Could I but watch it ever sleeping so, 

" E'en should those eyelids never more unclose 

*• And those sweet hps be silent evermore, 

"Yet could I wait and watch thro' all the years 

"And keep alive her tender memory. 

" Ah, shame to bury such a lovely thing 

*' All out of sight in earth's unfeeling breast — 

*' I have a horrid dread that thro' long years 

*' My memory may fail to call her back ! 

" Oh, should I e'er forget her ! — Let her stay 

*' And do not hurry her away so soon 

•* To loneliness and darkness ! " 

Here the Nun 
Sister Theresa, Constance's old friend, 
(For they were staying near the sunny town 



Off Denzil Place. 237 

iVhere first they met her) led him from the room 
And whisper'd words of Christian hope and faith, 
But thro' them all, to his remorseful heart 
There ran an undercurrent of reproach — 
It seem'd to him as tho' the Sister said 
(Whatever form she made the words assume,) 
"Ah, surely yonder convent in the hills 
*' Had been a brighter prison than the one 
" To which your boasted love has sent her now." 
I know not whether such a passing thought 
E'er flitted thro' her mind, or if his brain, 
Perverted by its load of suffering. 
Originated ev'ry sentiment 
That could inflict self-torture. 

" Cease, I pray," 
He said, when next the Sister, meeting him, 
Strove to console him with her well-meant words, 
" In pity cease these vain and empty tales 
" About the tender mercies of your God ! 
" What is this life that He has given me 
" Now that the world is empty of her ? Where 
" May I discover any trace of her ? 
" Transform' d, or blended into what is fair 
" In Nature, may I recognize again 



238 Constance's Fate ; 

*' Some spark of that pure flame that was her breath ? 

" Ah, had I but her innocent belief 

*' Of winged meetings in another sphere 

" How good 'twould be to wait and hope for her I 

*' Ten thousand years of waiting would I wait, 

** Here in this very flesh ten thousand years, 

" To clasp at their eventful expiration 

" So dear a blessing ! " 

Then he sadly thought 
" Alas, I did not value her enough 
" When she was with me ! All my love of her 
" Was not enough of love — that sacred thing, 
" Her hand, I often only lightly held 
" (Not thinking it was lent to lie in mine 
*' But for a moment ! ) whilst my fickle mind 
" Wander'd away to England. On my breast 
" She has lain her head and slept, and I have slept, 
" Closing mine eyes to the great happiness 
"Of gazing on her, I repair'd to dreams 
" In which she sometimes did not follow me — 
*' She was as lost to me for long whole hours 
" As now she is to all eternity ! 
** Now would I wake, watching her sweetest face 
" Thro* sleepless' ages, could I feel again 



or, Denzil Place. 239 

"The cheek that Hghtly on my happy heait 

" Used once to lean ! These are the first sad days 

" That I have felt Cxod's anger in my life— 

*' She was so good, so pure, so beautiful — 

'' Thinking no evil thought — it was for me 

*• She left her innocent life of good intent 

" To sail with me upon the stormy sea 

" Of passion — it was I who dragg'd her down 

*' To the low level of my selfish life — 

*' I took her for my own, I mix'd with mine 

** Her pure identity ; — I spoil'd, devour' d, 

'' And revell'd in my godle,ss victory — 

" And now 1 am a murderer, like Cain. 

"My kiss has kill'd my darling, — all my life 

" Is henceforth chasten' d with a deathless hungei 

" Insatiable — vain, ah, cursed words 

" ' Impossible ' and ' Never ' and ' Too late !' " 

He look'd towards the cradle, where the babe 
With upturn'd face of Hly fairness, slept 
The sleep of innocence ; in vain he strove 
To trace some likeness to his buried love 
In those impassive features, scarcely yet 
Deserving such a name ; — the fast closed eyes 



240 Constance^ s Fate > 

Wanting as yet the mother's silken fringe 
Of curling eyelashes on either lid — 
Tlie open mouth, a tiny triangle, 
He bent to kiss, but tho' he seem'd to breathe 
The perfume of the blue starch-hyacinth, 
Yet nothing met the longing of his lips 
Oi her — his wife — the mother of his child! 
Then, half in anger with the helpless cause 
Of his chang'd life, and wholly in despair. 
He cover' d with his hands his haggard face 
And knew the bitterest of human griefs. 

And so they Duned Conscance oat of sight, 

And Geoffrey Denzil never saw again 

His darling's face ; but he remembers her 

As last he saw her ; scalter'd all around 

Her sleeping form, the scented southern flow'rs, 

The single rose, and double violet 

And mignonette, and bright anemone. 

And in her hand she held a faded wreath 

Of English evergreens — box, laurel, fir, 

And one dark spray of sad funereal yew 

To which a shigle shrivell'd berry clung, — 

These were the leaves that Constance gather'd once 



orfDefizil Place, 241 

Before she quitted silent Denzil Place, 

Whereon her husband read her written words — 

*' This wreath of leaves was gather'd in the garden 

** Of Eden ; to be kept for evermore." 

And- so he laid them there, that, if indeed 

That sleeping form should ever rise from death 

(As she belie v'd,) and soar triumphantly 

To other brighter realms, she then should find 

On waking into glorious second life, 

This little faded memory of earth 

Still clinging to her pale unfolding hand. 

And like her, maybe, re-awakening 

To life and freshness ; so that, 'midst the flow'rs 

Of Heaven's garden, some soft falling seed, 

(Perchance the little shrivell'd yew-berry,) 

From these sad sprays of earth, translated thus, 

INIighl, taking root, uprise and bloom again, 

Reminding oJie amongst the seraph-band 

Of those faint, fleeting moments pass'd and gone, 

When she had lov'd, and wander'd 'neath the shade 

Amongst the haunted groves "Df Denzil Place. 

After six weary years of wandering 

The news arrived at Denzil that once more 
II 



242 Constance' s Fate ; 

Its master would return. No longer poor 

In this world's goods, since by the sudden Will 

Of his rich relative, his fortune now 

Was more than doubled, but how 'reft of all 

Those only riches worthy of the name 

W\^ need not pause to tell ! and with him came 

A little fair-hair'd girl call'd Violet— 

(So named after the fragrant fav'rite flow'r 

Of her dead mother). Something in her eye* 

Reminded many of the villagers 

Of that sweet face that never more on earth 

Would beam upon them. 

As they sat in church, 
The tall, sad father, and the little girl, 
On the first Sunday after their return, 
Both priest and peasant eye'd them curiously, 
And Geoffrey Denzil felt an awkward sense 
Of mixed defiance and self-consciousness 
He had not known before ; — he also fear'd 
That they might whisper on their way from church 
And tittle-tattle o'er his buried past. 
Dragging maybe, the name he most ador'd 
From the high place from whence he worshipp'd it- 
For he had only sought his village church 



oVy Denzil <Place. 243 

Thinking that she would like him to be there, 
And from no wish to meet the prying eyes 
Of country gossips. Then it seein'd to him 
That young Sir Roland, from his curtain'd pew 
Beneath the mildew'd hatchments of his race, 
Look'd with his large dark eyes askance at him 
And seem'd to say, " So you are home again, 
Author of the dishonour of my house! " 
But if young Roland's eyes grew somewhat sad 
At sight of Denzil and his little girl, 
It was but at the memories they 'roused 
Of her, his early playmate and his friend 
Whom still he lov'd and mourn' d, for to his ears 
Had never come those scandalous reports 
VVhisper'd around, and only Geoffrey's mind 
O'er sensitive, could have imagin'd aught 
Of enmity or malice in that glance. 

(Constance's hatchment never grated there 
Against the whitewash'd walls of Farleigh Church, 
When summer breezes stirr'd the dingy baize 
That hid the open'd door ; there is no sigj), 
No tablet, urn, or monumental stone 
Recalling to the minds of those who pray 



244 Constance' s Fate ; 

Her who once knelt aniDngst them, and who now 
Sleeps under bluer skies. 

Far, far away, 
There, in the cemetery on the hill 
Where Protestants are buried, does she lie — 
There is a dearth of grass in Southern lands 
But such a wealth of flow'rs ! Anemones 
As many colour'd as the changing wave, 
Narcissus, single roses, violets — 
And some sweet blossom hanging from a tree 
Whose name I know not — golden is its bloom 
And soft as feathers from some magic bird — 
These droop around her, fann'd by gentle gales. 
And over these, again, a cypress tow'rs. 
And in amongst its sombre boding shade 
A Banksia rose is climbing towards the sky, 
Striving maybe, to reach it by the help 
Of that high fun'ral tree, as hopeful hearts 
Aspire to Heaven on the wings of Death.) 

So, after this first Sunday, it was long 
Ere Geoffrey Denzil went to church again. 
For there he met so r lany memories 
He fain would bury ; but his little girl, 



<?r, Denzil Place. 245 

(To glad, he thought, a hov'ring angel s eyes,) 

He taught to worship where her mother knelt 

In those old days before he saw her face ; 

And never more at sacred rite or name 

Did his curved lips assume a sceptic's smile, 

Since Constance had believ'd that all was true; 

And if there was a heaven, she was there, 

And she would welcome him, if any deed 

Or any suffering of his on Earth 

Could wipe away the Past, and give the saints 

That greater joy than when those " ninety-nine 

Just men " present themselves " Who" (saith the text« 

*' Need no repentance." 

Thus, if strange, 'twas true, 
That tho' poor Constance, with her yielding will 
Had seem'd to him at first a feeble child 
In pow'rs of reasoning and abstruse thought, 
Yet she had left upon his sterner mind 
(So confident before, in its proud aim 
At self-emancipation from all chains 
Imposed by man as advocate of heav'n !) 
A deeper trace than he had ever dream'd. 

Thus, a faint spark, if left at liberty 



246 Const atice' s Fate ; 

To nestle in the hollow of an oak, 

May gently light a beacon in its heart, 

Or leave a mark upon the glowing wood — 

Whilst up towards heav*n the evanescent flame 

Will die in smoke, so soft, and blue, and vague, 

It seems beyond belief so faint a thing 

Could leave so deep a trace upon the tree ! 

And* this is why the poor at Denzil Place 

Are all so well and warmly housed and clad, 

And why the old and young, in glowing words, 

Sound Denzil's praises, and on Sabbath morns 

Will pray that God may bless him, in their pray'rs, 

And think of him with reverence and love. 

(For this is where the godly often err, — 

The sinner sinning against one command 

Of God or man, need not in consequence 

Prove murderer, or thief, extortioner. 

Mover of neighbour's landmarks, seething kids 

In mother's milk, or, being by mischance 

Found wanting once, prove base in ev'rything 

For human souls I hold no helpless creed 

Of utter degeneration to decay 

And degradation, just because the fault, 



or^ Denzil Place. 247 

"Tlie little rift " maybe '' within the lute " 

Was not where youths or mine made cur's play false !) 

So Geoffrey Denzil taught his little girl 

The godly saws he did not follow once, 

And as he look'd on her he tried to think 

That tender bud would bloom into a flow*! 

Like the dead flow'r he mourn' d. 

It was a grief 
To him to think she had not known his love, 
That never, never, in the after years 
Could he converse of her as one they knew 
And wept together 1 This would make him sad, 
And seem'd to chill the love he bore the child. 
Whilst with the innocent indifference 
Of children for the mother who has borne them, 
Who died for them, but whom they have not seen, 
And did not know, and cannot therefore mourn. 
She often ask'd, " Had she black eyes, or blue, 
*' Mamma?" and many careless questions more 
Cutting like knives. *' She had brown eyes, my child,' 
He answer'd her, " And never your's or mine 
*' Will look upon such lovely eyes again." 

Thus thro' the years, the father looking back, 



248 Constance's Fate; 

The little daughter full of child-like hope,- 
Strangers in thought, yet by a mutual love 
Uniting hearts, together hand in hand, 
These two walked on towards the hoped-for Heaven 



CONCLUSION. 

••And soon again shall music swell the bretie ; 
Soon, issuing forth, shall glitter thro' the trees 
Vestui'es of nuptial white ; and hymns be sung. 
And violets scatter'd round ; and old and young 
In every cottage-porch with garlands green 
Stand still to gaze, and gazing, bless the scene ; 
"While her dark eyes declining, by his side 
Moves in her virgin- veil the gentle bride." 

ROGER.1. 



HE other day, in somewhat pensive mood, 

I sauntered down a dusty Sussex lane 

Late in the afternoon ; the sun was hot, 

And tho' the road was shaded by the oaks 

In the off-lying hedgerows near the park, 

Yet still I long'd for those in tenser shades 

I saw afar, between the iron gates 

Of Denzil Place, (for I had sought the scene 

Of this sad simple story, and could see 

The woods of Denzil Place and Farleigh Court,) 

But ere I reach' d the tempting tangled shade 
II* 



250 Conclusion, 

I heard the clattering of coming steeds, 
And round the tufted angle of the lane 
A youth and maiden suddenly appear* d 
Beaming with life and laughter. As they pass'd 
I watch' d them curlousl)^, for both of them 
Were beautiful, and something made me feel 
A deeper interest than e'er inspired 
The sight of any other youth or maid. 

The girl was fair, with wealth of golden locks, 

And something in the colour of her eyes 

Reminded me of eyes I used to know 

In years gone by. I turn'd aside to ask 

An aged woman, who, on seeing them. 

Had risen from her seat beside her hives 

And dropp'-d a curtsey ; who and what they were 

This comely pair ? 

• " She, with the yellow locks," 
Answer'd the dame, endeav'ring while she spoke 
To catch a glimpse of their retreating forms, 
*' Is Violet Denzil, and the gentleman 
" Who rode with her, and follows her as shade 
** Follows on sunshine, is our master here 
" The young Sir Roland ; old Sir John L' Estrange 



Conclusion, 251 

** Married the mother of Miss Violet 

" Before she married Mr. Denzil there 

*' Over at Denzil Place, (you see the gates,) 

" So they are kind of kin-like, and yet still 

" Our parson says they are not kin at all, 

" Since young Sir Roland is not child of her 

** But of Sir John's first lady, and he says 

" He hopes that he shall live to join their hands 

" As man and wife, and parson also says 

** Their marriage-ring will join the properties, 

" And put to shame some scandal-mong'rihg tales 

" Folks whisper'd here." 

With this she turn'd away 
And fearless of the buzzing colony 
That swarm'd about the ruffles of her cap, 
Began to celebrate some mystic rite 
Connected with her bees, whilst on I stroll'd, 
Following the prints which those two horses' hoofs 
Left in the dusty road, and lost in thought. 

So this fair being with the golden hair 

Was Violet Denzil, born in Italy, 

The child of Love and Beauty ! and the youth 

Was that brave handsome boy who used to romp 



252 Conchision. 

And ram Die with his lovely stepmother 

Thro' fields and woodlands in the years gone by ; 

And they would marry, (so the parson thought 

And who should be so good a judge as he, 

Who doubtless had wise reasons for such thought ?) 

Ah, here, if marriage of the young and fair, — 

If blooming cheeks and lovely sunny head, 

Wedding with brave brown eyes and stalwart frame 

And manly heart, e'er promised happiness. 

Then should these two, who like some glowing dreair 

Of Prince and Princess in a fairy-tale, 

So gaily gallopp'd past me, on the road 

To Life and Love ; then should these two be bless'd 

With ev'ry earthly good ; — ^around their knees 

May happy children laugh and sport in glee, 

And children's children, in the after yeats — 

Good little Geoffreys and fair Constances, 

^Vho must not sin like naughty grandpapa. 

Or pretty grandmamma, who died so young, 

And whose sweet picture, in a muslin dress 

*' With coral-colour' d sash and shady hat, 

And looking like an angel," they will see 

Hanging within the walls of Denzil Place. 



EPILOGUE. 




LAY aside my pen, — my story ends 

** Of some few years in some few English lives ; " 
Warning of evils wrought by bosom friends 
To some few English husbands and their wives, — 
A simple story — unimprov'd by rhymes, 

And unembellish'd with that mystic glow 
Which hovers o'er the tales of olden times. 

The chivalresque romaunls of long ago. 
Yet I would say, to compensate for this, 

(Had but my Constance lov'd the man she ought. 
And had my Geoffrey's been a lawful kiss,) 

That I had felt and understood each thought 
Portray'd in them; and that they liv'd and mov'd 

And had their being outside the gilded rim 
Of this poor book, and that they sinn'd and lov'd. 

And that in truth I knew both her and him. — 
Or wholly in the flesh, or as, may be, 

A sculptor recognises, blent in one 
From many models borrow'd, arm or knee 

Or rounded throat or bosom ; — and the sun 
Has shone in very truth on ev'ry scene 

My humble pen has striven to portray. 
And Denzil Place and Farleigh Court have been 

With all their inmates, and I know the day 



254 Epilogue. 

When Constance first saw Geoffrey Denzil ride 

Thro' long arcades of evergreens, and when 
She knelt in love and anguish by his side 

And told him all her aching heart knew then. 
Not by these names were known this erring pair, 

(Nor yet that injured husband, kind and old) — 
But he was human, she alas, was fair — 

And ' good Sir Johns' are always manifold. 
You search in vain for moral or advice — 

For flow'ry language, — complicated plot, — 
Or cunning metaphor, or neat and nice 

And pointed epigram, — you find them not. 
I tremble for my reader's kind good will 

And hang a bashful liead, yet seem to see 
(No doubt with partial eyes,) a moral still 

Which lingers here, if only seen by me. 
Poor Constance was not born so bad and base 

As needs must seem a guilty faithless wife, 
And had her heart been harder, on her face 

Less fair, she might have liv'd a blameless Jife. 
She was the eager champion of the poor, 

And Denzil was her helper in the cause. 
High were their motives, and their conduct pure^ 

And if his soul despised our human laws 
It was because they seem'd less just and true 

Than those that he had fashion'd as his own,- 
He would have formM a new religion, too, 

E'en better, — broader, — than this present one. 
He did not forge, as weapon to obtain 

His evil purpose, any cunning scheme 
Such as some men have form'd, who wish'd to gain 

The love of other women, — for his dream 
Had been to veil his idol in the shrine 



Epilogue, 255 

His love and reverence had rais'd on high. 
And worship her as tho' a thing divine 

Almost too sacred for the human eye 
To light upon ; — whilst she had seen with grief 

In him the signs of a persistent will 
To war against all orthodox belief, 

Yet hoped, with patience, to convert him still, 
So sought his side, nor ever miss'd the chance 

Of tender word of counsel, wise and strong 
Beyond her years, or sweet reproachful glance 

At any word or action seeming wrong. 
No naughty novels did my Geoffrey lend, — 

No Ernest Feydeatis^ and no Paul de Kocks. 
He was the ** working man of England's friend" 

And talk'd of Progress whilst she knitted socks, 
'Twas thus they fell ! E'en as they sagely plai\n'd 

The reformation of the human kind. 
They saw their boasted bulwarks blown as sand 

At the remorseless mercy of the wind ! 
** Captain or Colonel, Knight, or man-at-arms " 

So may you fall, whilst gazing at the sky, 
Blmd to the many dangers and alarms 

"Which close beside you in your pathway lie ! 
And you, fair lady, who could never err 

Save from your beauty, or your * melting mood * 
Which dreads all cruelty, — be warn'd by her 
^— And be a little cruel to be good ! 
!_She did not fall from love of deadly sin, 

Nor did her breast for guilty pleasures glow. 
And pure had been the heart that beat within. 

Save for her fatal fear of saying •* no." 
But ah, forgive her ! in the coming years 

She cannot crofis your path, or cause your cheek ^ 



256 Epilogue. 

To blush for her delinquencies, — ^her tears 

Are dried for ever, and her voice will speak 
To Geoffrey Denzil not one loving word 

Of all the many he remembers yet. 
Nor is her fairy footfall ever heard 

Now or for ever ; — so forgive, forget 
Her many faults and failings, she is dead, 

And many miss her, and would fain recall 
Her and her frailties, and would e'en, instead. 

Exaggerate her virtues : — faults and all 
Some foolish people lov'd her. Slie is gone 

Like this sad autumn day, of which the hue 
Suits well this landscape ; — all ihe sculptured stone 

Of these two Denzil dragons, wet with dew 
Is glist'ning from a newly risen moon 

Charming the hazy distance 'neath her reign 
Of silv'ry sad enchantment. Very soon 

Thro ev'ry quaint Elizabethan pane 
Glimmers a twinkling light. Farewell old home I 

Old house with windows looking like the eyes 
Of some old friend, who smiles at those who come 

And sighs for those who go ; — but mostly sighs 
For her who never more will come or go. 

And never more may look upon thy face! 
Farewell sad witness of her shame and woe. 

Farewell to Constance and to Dentil Place* 



THESKS), 



VIOLET FANE'S 
POEMS. 



CONTENTS. 



To Him (Dedication) ^ . ix 



I. DAWN. 

'3 

Moonlight 15 

Three Names ..,,,,,, 17 

Song • ig 

Time •.,,,,,,,,21 

Lines 23 

A Lock of Hair 24 

Hope 27 

SONO ..28 

Remembered Voicbs •••••. 29 



VI 



PAGH 

In the Wood 31 

** Oh ! Sing that Song you sang before I " , 34 

To 35 

A Dream 36 

*' Do NOT FORGET ME I " 40 

**She cannot love Him as well as I" . . 42 

The Last of Heaven 44 

"Speak of the Past" 45 

''Farewell 1" » 47 

Lines 49 

To . . . ; . i . . . 50 

Three Wishes 52 

" He is not here ! ** .••... 53 

"Are we Remembered?" 54 

Written on Sand 5^ 



Vll 



II. NOON. 

PAua 

To . . . V . . . . . 59 

"For Ever and for EverI" .... 62 

The Secret 64 

A Thought 66 

Another Thought 67 

Burning Letters ..•."..• 69 

His Name 72 

Idolatry . . . ' 74 

*'OhI let it be for Long I" .... 78 

" I Live my Life away from Thee I " . . . 80 

Love's Hours ........ 83 

New Year's Day 85 

"After long Years" 87 

"Tout vient 1 qui sait attendee " • • . 93 

Love in Winter 96 

To A Portrait 97 

In Years to Come 99 

The Coquette • loi 

•* He will not Come I ** , , • , , • loj 



Vlll 



PAGB 

On a Gloomy Day • , , , . , .104 

My Recotids . 106 

London 108 

A Dream of the South iii 

So Late ! . . . 117 

A Reproach 118 

Ah ! Remember ! 121 

Before and After 126 

Alone at the Tryst • , . . . .130 

Calm and Storm 133 

"The Light of other Days" ... .134 

My King . • 136 

Compensation • . .138 

Lancelot and Guineverb , ... .141 
Now 147 




TO HIM. 




DEDICATE these few poor lines to 
HUn^ — 
^ Love of my Life ! Dearest of my de- 

sires ! — 
The one who kindled in my breast those 
fires 
Which neither time nor tide can dull or dim : 

Some, written in the dew of earlier tears 
Than longings, for his love have caused to 
flow, 
And others written in the sunny glow 
Of years which he has bless' d, — thrice happy years I 

I give Him not alone the thoughts I frame, 

With them^ the erring heart from which they sprung, 
With them, the dearest accents that my tongue 

Can kiss into the music of His name ! 

Oh I could I write out on a golden scroll 

The essence of my being ! I would then 

Leave but my hollow shell for other men. 

And give Him, with my Life and Love, — my Soul t 
I* 



DAWN. 



•Standing with reluctant feet, 
Where the brook and river meet. 
Womanhood and childhood fleet I * 

Longfellow* 



13 




HE poetry that lies within the soul 
Cannot be written, nay, the greatest 

poet 
Is he who keeps the treasure in himself. 
Once given birth to, this enchanting music 
Is often play'd by tuneless instruments ; 
This lovely flow'r, whose colors beam'd so 

fair 
In the dim forests of the inmost soul. 
Fades often when it meets the eye of day. 
These living pictures glowing in the heart, 
Strange, sweet, and variable, — in an hour 
Thousands created, often, when described 
Lose more than half their beauty. For these thoughts 
Are thoughts, and thoughts alone, — the pow'r of speech 
Destroys them, as a ray of mid-day sun 
Melts Winter's handiwork on frozen panes. 
This sweet entanglement of daylight dreams, 
Like creepers, with their growing tendrils twined 
Round the heart's core, cannot be disengaged 
Uninjured or unmixed, for where is he 
Who shaking down the clusters of the vine 



H 



Knows each and ev'ry grape, or can discern 
One from another ? Thus with poet's dreams 1 
This unsung poetry, when written down 
And shackled in the narrow bonds of verse, 
Is made so poor, so weak beneath the load 
Of such unnatural clothing, and the weight 
Of high-flown words, that it becomes ere long 
No poetry at all. So bear with this 1 




15 



MOONLIGHT. 

HIGH midst the stars the moot is risen, 
Amongst the fleeting clouds that chase 
Each other o'er the vault of heaven 

Into those mighty realms of space, 
Which far beyond all human sight 
Expand in floods of golden light. 

Beneatn, the trees repeat some hist'ry 
Replete with awe, for each one's head 

Sways o'er its shade, a space of myst'ry 
Upon the glade where it is spread ; 

This is the fairest, softest hour. 

When all Unseen, Unknown, hath pow*r. 

The Queen of Night her face beholdeth 
In yon clear stream, that quivers gay, 

Shaking the image fair it holdeth 
As tho' to carry it away 

Upon its wave. Ah ! foolish stream I 

Thou art enchanted by the beam I 



J 6 Moonlight, 

This heart would fain to shake from cff it 
A light as bright tnat weighs it down, 

The light of eyes that seem to scoff it, 
A proud cold brow, that seems to frown. 

Yet, as without the moon yon stream, 

So is it dark without their beam I 

I try, like yonder restive river. 

To cast the fair remembrance hence, 

But like it, I must hold for ever 
That cruel light, at sad expense 

Of happiness and peace, until 

The spell is broken by his will I 



17 



THREE NAMES. 

UPON an oak tree's rugged bark 
There is a faintly 'graven mark, 
Carved by this hand, when it was young. 
It is a name, and on this tongue 
The sounding of that name was evermore 

In those sweet days of yore ! 
Upon a tombstone on the green 
Some letters, deeply traced, are seen ; 
*Tis the name of the one who lies asleep 
Beneath that little grassy heap, 
Where flowers bloom above the head 
Of the dear remember'd dead, 
Whose short terrestrial race is run, 
And these two names belong to one. 

But there is yet another place, 
Where, in deeper letters far, I trace 
That self-same name. The hardy oak 
May fall beneath the woodman's stroke, 
And its bark, which bears that name so fair, 
May be borne away, I know not where. 



l8 Three Names. 

The name engraved upon the stone 
With moss is ahiiost overgrown, 
And those who knew it not before 
Could scarcely guess what name it bore ; 
But neither Time, nor tide, nor place 
Can by their influence efface 
From this sad heart that cherish'd name 
Written upon the oak, the same 
That is engraved upon the stone. 
And these three names belonged to one, 
To one who once was true and kind— 
These names an angel left behind 1 




IQ 



SONG. 

IT was a Dream, and it is dreamt ; 
'Tis gone,— 'tis past,— 'tis fled. 
But, oh ! its Spirit is with me still, 
Though all besides is dead ! 

And it haunts me yet, by the light of day, 
Beneath the sun's glad beam, 

And it haunts me in the midnight hour, 
This Spirit of my Dream 1 

Oh ! would that I could dream again 

A dream as fair and bright ! 
Then would I sleep ray life away 

And turn my day to night I 

Oh ! it was like the falling star 
That flashes through the sky, 

Or like the echo from afar 
Of some sweet melody. 



20 



Song, 



But now that star has fall'n to earth, 
I hear no more that strain, 

Though the echo of its sweetness 
For ever will remain ! 



21 



TIME. 

"Time is I" 
"Time was I" 
'♦ Time is past ! " 

{Spoken by the Brazen Head madi h} 
Friar Bacon.) 

TIME is a great Destroyer — all have told, 
Or else may tell (such is the fate of all !) 
Of hearts that 'neath his touch have waxen cold, 
Of blossoms that his winds have made to fall ! 

Time is a great Physician — he can heal 

The wounds that others strive to bind in vain ; 

He can remove the poison'd barb of steel, 
And only leave the memory of pain ! 

Time is no Flatterer — ^his dusky wings 

Cannot be stay'd with riches or with might ; 

Nay, over those to whom he brings good things 
He seems to wing most rapidly his flight 



22 Time, 

Time is a Necromancer — he can change 

What once we lov'd,— the place, the heart, the face, 

Into a thing at once so sadly strange 

That memory no semblance there can trare 1 

Time is a Sexton — and he daily delves 

A thousand graves in which the Past is laid. 

Until at length his votaries themselves 

Forget the griefs which made them seek his aid I 

Time is a Conqueror — and his magic wand 

Can crush the gate which Caesar smote in vain ; 

Behold around the traces of his hand, 
A mighty city crumbling on the plain ! 

Time is Immortal — he will ever fly 

As he has flown thro' centuries of light : 

Waste not his hours, — for, reader, you and I 
Have but a moment to observe his flight I 



23 



LINES. 

I SAW so bright, so fair a thing. 
Of red, of blue, of green, 
A feather from an angel's wing 
I deemed it must have been. 

I seized it, with impatient grasp, 

All eager for my prize. 
When, lo 1 it was 'a poisonous asp 

With red malicious eyes I 

The wound inflicted by its' sting 

I bear unto this day ; 
I trust so fair, so foul a thing 

May never come your way I 



24 



A LOCK OF HAIR. 

HOW small a thing is this ! and yet how great, 
How puissant with its tearful memories ! 
'Tis a remembrance of that Sleeping One, 
And echoes back the music of a voice 
Which has these many years been hush'd to us ! 

We said that she should ever live to us : 
We laid her in her grave, and silently 
Each mourner made a vow that years might pass, 
That friends might die, and new ones fill their place, 
Yet she should dwell with us ; of ev'ry heart 
That lov'd her when in Hfe, she should, in death. 
Become the silent occupant, and this. 
Looking into her grave, we each one swore 1 

So time pass'd on, and with each year the wound 
(At first seemingly so incurable. 
And bleeding fresh with ev'ry fresh allusion 
To the sad past), heal'd slowly, unawares. 



A Lock of Hair. 25 

Tiie place was changed, old memories crept out, 
Then fairer, newer ones, all furtively 
Slunk in their place. 

With friends it was the same ; 
Their fresh and many faces half confus'd us. 
That sweet pale face grew paler and more pale 
As years pass'd on, dimmer and yet more dim ; 
We thought of her, 'tis true, but not as we 
Had thought of her before. She seem'd a form 
Like to an angel, beautiful and fair. 
But indistinct. She was a shadowy thing. 
Full of angelic beauty i but her face, 
(That dear, dear face we kiss'd in days of yore), 
Which one amongst us now remembers it ? 

I cannot speak for others, but by me, 

Oh ! Absent One ! thou art remember'd ! 

Thy silent voice, in shadowy dreams, 

lias held communion with my spirit ! 

Upon my lips thy dear unutter'd name 

Has oft-en linger' d. I have often 

Thought o'er its music, and ten thousand times 

Spelt o'er its sweetness silently ; but when 

I find thy shadow growing dim again 



26 A Lock of Hair. 

(Lest it should fade from out my memory, 

Leaving no faintest trace behind, whereby 

To know thee, if again in higher realms 

We chance should meet), I gaze from time to time 

Upon this lock of thy dear dark brown hair 

As I am gazing now, and then, oh ! C .... I 

I see thee once again ; I know thee then ; 

I hear thy voice once more, it teaches me 

What is the worth of Life. I see the world 

In all its smallness. Then I long, dear C . . . . 

For that uncertain time, when with my burden 

I may rest by thy side, and be, hke thee, 

Only remember'd by the few who lov'd me ! 




V 



HOPE. 

FAINT Star of Hope ! Far on the dark horizon 
Of my sad life, thy rays fall tremblingly 
Upon my heart ; a moment there they linger, 
Then lend to others their sweet brilliancy, 
Leaving my soul in darkness worse than dying ! 

Oh, fickle Light ! when wilt thou cease to glimmer 
Around this broken altar ?' Long in darkness 
It hath been shrouded, and thy rays forsake it 
*Ere its dark crevices are lighten'd by them. 
Oh, cruel Light ! Here shed thy beams for ever, 
Or leave me quite ! I could not be so hopeless 
As when I see the shade of what I hope for 
Too faint to grasp ! 



23 



SONG. 

THERE is a lustre in thine eye 
Which only sheds its beams for me^ 
There is a language in thy smile 
Which others may not see ! 

There is a music in thy voice 

Which only echoes in viy ear, 
There is a sadness in thy laugh 

Which others do not hear I 

Thou hast a beauty of thine own 

Which others do not care to see- 
There is a secret in thy heart, 
'Tis only told to me 1 




29 



REMEMBERED VOICES. 

WHEN the sun's last rays have vanished 
From the distant hill, 
In the silence of the twilight 

I can hear them still, — 
Dear and unforgotten Voices I 
I can hear you still ! 

As I gaze upon the shadows 

Length'ning on the plain, 
Eyes that now are closed for ever 

Beam on me again, — 
Well remember' d eyes I long slumb'ring I 

Wake to me again I 

Happy hour ! yet mix'd with sadness, 

Ere the candles beam, 
Let me pause, as on the threshold 

Of some pleasant dream, — 
Ere the light dispels the darkness 

Let me dream my dream ! 



30 Remembered Voices. 



li before thee I should travel 
To the unknown shore^ 

Thus it is that I would linger 
Near to thee once more, — 

I would linger in the gloaming 
Near to thee once more ! 

What is Absence, then, or dying? 

AVhat, to meet or part, 
If our memory lives for ever 

In some faithful heart ? 

I would die, if I might linger 

Only in one heart 1 




31 



IN THE WOOD. 

IWANDER'D in the wood alone, 
The ev'ning mist fell soft and gray. 
And stars were peeping one by one 
To say that day was dead and gone, 
Alas ! for ever and for aye 1 



Oh ! little Star 1 I know so well 
The gentle falling of thy rays ! 
Upon thy light I love to dwell, — 
Thy sad, soft light, which seems to tell 
A history of other days ! 

How many hearts, how many eyes 
Are lifting now themselves afar, 

How many mystic thoughts arise. 

How many buried memories 
Out of the image of that star 1 



32 In the Wood, 

Upon my cheek I do not feel 

The breath of Autumn's chilly wind, 

For Summer zephyrs seem to steal 

Upon my- senses, and the Real 
Is fading fast from out my mind. 

I mind me when these trees were clad 
With leaves that round me now are blown, 

I mind me when my heart was glad, 

When I was never pale and sad, 
And did not wander thus alone. 

Oh ! when the Spring again appears, 

When flow'rs are bright and thrushes sing, 
Then will these eyes have dried their tears, 
And will the Spring of after years 
Be like in aught that bygone Spring ? 

Oh I will the flow'rs seem half as sweet, 
And will the sunshine look as bright, 

And will the moments fly as fleet, 

And will this heart begin to beat 
As once before, when it was light ? 



In the Wood, 33 

Was it for this that Earth was fair ? 

Was it for this that Love was given ? 
That we should look on empty air 
And think on that which once was there, 

Yet never, never grasp our heaven ? 

Can Joy survive each thought of Spring ? 

Does Night set in e'er close of Day? 
Does Pleasure end in sorrowing ? 
And Love, in such a wither'd thing 

As yon sere leaf that strews my way ? 

Alas ! I would that I could say I 

I would that Spring could ever last, 

That Hope would never fade away. 

That Life could be one long To-day, 

So we should never know a Past I 
2* 




34 



"OH! SING THAT SONG YOU SANG 
BEFORE ! " 

OH ! sing that song you sang before 
When Life seemed bright and fair ! 
Before the memories and the tears 
Of alter'd times and after years 
Had risen bleak and bare ; 

And like a wall, between our hearts 

Had shut out Hope and Truth, 
And tinged the brightest years of Life 
With darker thoughts, and keener strife 

Than well became our youth ! 

Oh ! sing that song you sang before ! 

And as its notes shall ring, 
I'll close my eyes and dream once more 
That I am as 1 was of yore 

Wlien last I heard you sing 1 



IS 



TO 



T IKE me a little, since thou wilt not love me, 
Let me be something to thee in thy life, 
Something to 'mind thee of thy youth and beauty, 
When both have left thee, in those after years 
Which thou mayst live to see as well as others ; 
Then think of me, as one who stood apart 
And worshipp'd thee in silence and in sorrow, — 
Then think of me, and give me of thy heart 
(Whether I am alive or dead, what matters ?) 
A larger share than thou canst spare me now 1 




36 



A DREAM. 

LAST night, like a ray of light, 
In a dream she lingered by me— 
Loved, but not lost to me quite, 
Since, in the dim stilly night 

Sometimes so lovingly nigh me, 
That the soft flow of her hair 
(Dusky, all save here and there 

Where the gold shadow just lights it), 
Has hover'd my couch above, 
Like the tame flight of a dove 

Ere nierciless hawk affrights it 1 

C . . . . ! the touch of thy hand 
Last night, in the unnamed land 

Somewhere 'twixt waking and sleeping, 
Silenced the voice of my sighs, 
And swept from my sorrowful eyes 

All the sad tears I was weeping. 
Close to my heart sad and lone. 
Wearied with sorrows unknown, 



A D-'^am 37 

As thy dear gentle hand lingers, 
Sorrow, and Sin, and unrest 
Seem not to survive in my breast 

The touch of thy soothing ringers ! 
• •••••• 

Oh ! never forgotten dream ! 
Like a bright heavenly beam. 

Come and revisit me often ! 
C . . . . ! the cares which each flay 
Crowd round my darkening way, 

Nightly thy presence shall soften / 

Dearest ! what dangers can harm 
When thy dear guardian arm 

Clasping securely around me. 
Shuts from my soul, like a veil, 
All that could tempt and assail 

And ever seek to confound me ? 
Thus, thus, for a little while. 
With thy soft reproving smile, 

C . . . . ! continue to guide me, 
Till, with my hand in thine own, 
I, to the country unknown 

Some day may journey beside thee 1 



38 



HE is gone ! He Is gone ! and as a page unwritten, 
Or only traced with what is good and brave, 
So his young life, which all too early smitten, 
Sends home his soul unto the God who gave. 

As some bright bird, sent from a heav'nly palace 
To linger for a while in this sad world, 

Or as some water-flower, whose spotless chalice 
Has only to the zephyr been unfurl' d. 

So was his soul ! That bird has flown /or ever 

Back to those golden reahns, more fair than these j 

That sweet white flow'r has floated down the river, 
Leaving to us its fragrance on the breeze. 

Oh ! if' in HeaVn there is some highest Heaven, 
Some place where happiness is doubly known, 

Surely a dwelling-place will there be given 
To the pure soul so early heav'n-ward flown I 



39 



And if the ones who now are sadly gazing, 

On all that makes his absence seem more diear, 

Could, to that distant land their eyes upraising, 
Pierce through the veil which hides him ifrom them 
here ; 

There, with the Angels, who like him have striven, 
For those rich blessings, still by us unguess'd, 

Tliey would behold, in God's eternal Heaven, 
Him who on earth had been beloved the best. 




40 



" DO NOT FORGET ME ! " 

DO not forget me ! when the day is ending, 
And darkening shadows gather o'er the sea ; 
Sometimes alone, and near this casement bending, 
Pause in the twilight and remember me ! 

Think on the brightness of the summer weather, 
Years, years ago, one well-remember' d day. 

When to the woods we wander' d forth together, 
Amongst the primroses and blue bells gay. 

Time changes all ! those blossoms now are faded, 
Or, if they bloom, they do not seem as fair 

As once before, when, by the beech-trees shaded, 
You twined them tenderly amongst my hair. 

[ dash away the tear, that all unbidden 
Arises, when I think that this is past. 

And muse on all my anxious heart has hidden 
Since the sad ev'ning when 1 saw you last i • 



'* Do not forget M£ f " 41 

Earth has enough of heav'ii to gild its sorrow 
And turn the current of its griefs away, 

Could we but learn to dread no dark To-morrow, 
And live for ever in one glad To-day ! 

Whilst /have mused in solitude and sadness 
On all the changes fleeting time can bring, 

Others have hallow'd to you, with their gladness, 
The happy hours of many another Spring. 

All this I know, yet when the shadows darken, 
And when none other better loved is by 

To mark your silent mood, perchance, or hearken 
To the soft echo of a half-heaved sigh ; 

Then lend to me that hour of soft emotion. 
And link'd in spirit let us leave the shore, 

And floating o'er the dark mysterious ocean. 
Be unto one another as before ! 

Do not forget me ! when the day is ending, 
And dark'ning shadows linger o'er the sea, 

Sometimes alone, and near this casement bending, 
Pause in the twilight and remember me 1 



42 



"SHE CANNOT LOVE HIM AS 
WELL AS L" 

SHE cannot love him as well as I, 
There are so many who throng her round, 
And she forgetteth, when they are by, 
The very color of his eye, 
And of his voice the sound ! 

She hath loved others so well, so long, 

This can be only a passing whiiii, 
The faint last echoing of a song 
Ling'ring awhile behind the throng, 

Which was not sung for him 1 

Ah ! she might have loved him once, and well, 
But her own heart says it is now too late, 

And that with the bitterness which Life 

Hath planted in her like a knife, — 
'Twere easier to hate I 



*' She cannot love Him as well as I.'* 43 

Yet how he loves still to linger nigh, 

And to tread that too well trodden shore, 

To drink of the fount which half is dry, 

And read that fable in her eye 
So often read before ! 

And thus it hath been since man was born, 
And 'tis thus the web of life is wove, 

Ah ! and even I, the while I mourn, 

Know not the heart of him I scorn, 
Or e'en of him I love ! 




44 



THE LAST OF HEAVEN. 

I HAVE heard of the last of Earth, 
Of the last faint sigh that is given 
By the weary soul, ere it takes its flight 
To those unknown realms of endless light 
For which it has hoped and striven, — 
But now, oh ! I feel in the dim sad light 
Of the day that is fading fast into night, 
I have tasted my last of Heaven I 




45 



''SPEAK OF THE PAST." 

SPEAK of the Past, for ever flown. 
It is not often that we may ; 
Thy words seem like stray blossoms blown 

From those dead flow'rs of yesterday, 
Or like the feathers from the wings 
Of angels that have pass'd away ! 

To dream on what was but a dream, 
To wait and watch, in vain, in vain I 

To long in darkness for a beam 

Of that past hope which now is slain ; 

To look and long, to watch and pray 
For that which cannot be again : 

This is the madness of my soul. 
Thy love can never reach as far, 

There are two halves in ev'ry whole. 
But these, in Love, unequal are ; 

And when I know how great is mine, 

I feel, perforce, how small is thine I 



46 •* Speak of the Past:* 

Yet, if alike our loves were given, 
Only awhile would last the spell, 

And lend our lives one ray of heaven, 
Only to dash theni down to hell ! 

There is a dying worse than Death, 
And /should taste of that as well ! 

Then, though 'tis madness in our eyes. 
Yet sometimes speak of what is past ; 

Some bright unhoped-for star may rise 
To light one moment's gloom at last,- 

Till then, with coldness darken not 
The "night in which my lot is cast ! 




.47 



" FAREWELL ! " 

AND now farewell ! I fain would shake 
The links that bind my heart to theej 
Those useless fetters I would break 
And let the 'prison' d one go free ! 

When thou art absent from my sight, 
And other eyes around me shine, 

I try to think those ejes as bright. 
As full of life and love as thine. 



What care I for another's lOve— 
Another's kisses on my cheek ? 

Another's lips repeating words 

I fear that thine will never speak ? 

I know not why my> spirit sighs, 
For other hearts are seeking mine; 

And I can read in other eyes 
The tenderness 1 miss in thine. 



48 



'' Farewell r' 



Yet 'tis in vain ! Thy friendship cold— 
The calm esteem 1 have from thee. 

Is dearer, oh I ten-thousand fold, 

Than Love, which others give to mc- ' 




49 



LINES. 

THEY tell me I am much too young 
To muse upon the Past — 
Tiiat I am but a child, they say 
I should be Hving for To-day, 

Whilst youth's short pleasures last. 

They tell me they have had their Past* 

Their happy Yesterday ; 
They say if now my life be sad, 
What will it be when I have had 

Real sorrows, such as they ? 

Alas ! I know I may become 

E'en sadder at the last. 
But now I sigh, as well as they ; 
For young and fair, and old and gray, 

We all have had a Past ! 
3 






50 



TO 



I LEAVE thee now, if I could ever lo^e thee, 
Fate hath prevented such a consummation, 
And nipped the bud ere yet it was a blossom I 

I leave thee ! and with thee, may be, I lose 
My hold on Happiness, on Life, on Love ; 
I leave thee, and in flying thee, may be 
I fly a snare, an error, or a heart 
Broken unwittingly by fickleness I 

Thou art so often present in my thoughts, 
Yet in thyself but yet so dimly known, 

*Tis well I cannot read within thy heart. 
Perhaps its bitter mock'iy of my own I 

Oh ! Heart unknown ! If thou hast ever musec^ 
As I have done, upon a half-closed book, 

Hoping its pages fraught with sympathies, 
Or learnt the eager language of a look-^ 



To 51 

Then thou hast known me better than 1 deemed ; 

The speaking language of our meeting eyes 
Has made us friends already, and our hearts 

Linked with un uttered mystic sympathies ! 

Adieu, then, Friend I I leave thee, once again 
To thy blue eyes I look my last farewell ! 

I leave with thee, perchance, my Hope, my Life, 
Perchance my curse, my death, for who can tell ? 




52 



THREE WISHES. 



10NLY ask'd to love thee, 'twas a boon 
I deem'd the haughtiest would scarcely spurn; 
I only ask'd to give thee all my heart, 
And pray'd for nothing in return ! 



1 loved thee then, and with no common love, 
But with that love another wish there grew, 

And fervently I pray'd both day and night 
That thou might' st some day love me too ! 



3- 

That time is past ; but in these many days 

Since the bright summer-time when last we met, 

Another wish, another pray'r I raise — 
That wish, that pray'r is — to forget I 



53 



"HE IS NOT HERE!" 

THE voice of Spring is whisp'ring through the land, 
** Rejoice, sad one ! who through the long dim 
days 
Of dismal Winter's reign, wert wont to stand 

And .sigh in darkness for the sun's bright rays — 
Rejoice ! for Nature will not hear thee sigh — 

This is no time for musings lone and drear " — 
Yet sighing only can my heart reply 

" In vain, I cannot smile, — he is not here I " 



54 



"ARE WE REMEMBERED?" 

OFTEN, when hearts are beating high, 
When pleasure beams from ev'ry eye; 
When sounds of music rise and fall, 
And laughter rings through festive hall ; 
Unseen ones mingle with the crowd, 
And voices murmur, half aloud, 

" Are we remember'd ? " 



Ah ! gentle eyes ! in many a dream 
Since last you closed, I've seen you beam ! 
Dear voices ! I jan hear you now 
Murm'ring in accents soft and low, 

*' We are remember'd ! " 

A year ago — a month, may be— 
And they were smiling here, as we; 
A year from now, and we^ as they, 
To other beating hearts may say, 

" Are we remember'd ? " 



** Are we remembered? " 55 

Then may the answer be the same, 
From faithful hp§, whereon our name 
Lingers unutter'd ! Blest are they 
Who in a world of change can say, 

" We do remember ! " 



^ 



%6 



WRITTEN ON SAND. 

I WROTE upon the shining sands 
The name that I loved the best, 
Ere I saw the sun, in a glow of light, 
Sink down in the distant West. 

Then the wild sea-breeze blew loud and shrill, 

Yet I linger* d by the shore, 
Till the waves crept over the written word, 

And I saw that name no more 1 

And though it was only a written word, 

Yet I would that it had stay'd, 
For I learnt a lesson true and sad 

As I watched those letters fade ! 

And I wonder* d if there was a land — 

A far-off heavenly place — 
Where the letters traced on the hearths warm sand 

Time's waves would not efface. 



n. 

NOON 



"Man's love is of man's life a thing apart, 
*Tis woman's whole existence . . . ." 

Byron. 

3* 



59 




TO 

TAKE my pen, and almost weep to find 
That I can only write of what I know — ■ 

Athwart the shrunken mirror of my mind 
No varied forms pass glitt'ring to and 
fro. 

No clanking forms of gallant knights and 
squires 
Whose glories once my childish voice would 
praise, 
No feudal castles, from whose turret spires 

The captive maid her ev'ning song would raise. 

(That song the earl might hear, who rode hard by 
In bright array, and echoing through the dell 

Her voice might reach his heart, and he might try 
To win her love who sang to him so well, 

But ah ! she loved his page ! . .) Thus did the charms 

Of mediaeval fancy ebb and flow ; 
My soul seem'd all astir with men at arms, 

My eager heart dream'd only of the foe I 



6o To 

Palfrey and falcon — helm and nodding plume, 
The sheen of armor and the gleam of spears, 

Made of my brain a kind of lumber-room 
Stored with these relics of the bygone years. 

But now how changed ! To me one knight alone 
Seems to deserve the honor of his spurs ; 

And the one heart my heroine deems her own 
Seems to beat all as loyally as hers ! 

/am my own unworthy heroine now, 

Kxi^ you the noble knight with gallant crest ; 

Your colors blush triumphant on my brow, 
Your waving pennon flutters o'er my breast ! 

And so 1 write of Love — my waking dream, 

And so I write of you, and only you, 
And all monotonous my songs must seem 

To those who cannot love you as I do. 

Yet, as the limpid waters of a stream 

Are still the same, though view'd from either shore 
So on the changeless river of my dream 

Flows to the same soft music evermore. 



To 61 

Its source is in the heart that beats for you ; 

And onward to the, flood-gates of the tomb 
Its waters ghsten with the self- same hue, 

Save wliere or shine or shade lends light or gloom 

Take then the flow'rs it bears upon its wave ; • 
And should your wand' ring fancy find them fair, 

Think that your breath alone their fragrance gave, 
Nor scorn to gather what you planted there. 

Take all the gold that mingles with its sand ; 

Since, like the Hebrew Prophet long ago, 
Yours was the wond'rous touch, the magic wand, 

That smote the rock and bade the waters flow ! 




62 



"FOR EVER AND FOR EVER! 

I THINK of all thou art to me, 
I dream of what thou canst not be ; 
My life is curst with thoughts of thee 

For ever and for ever ! 

My heart is full of grief and woe, 
I see thy face where'er I go ; 
I would, alas ! it were not so 

For ever and for ever ! 

Perchance if we had never met, 
I had been spared this mad regret, 
This endless striving to forget. 

For ever and for ever ! 

Perchance if thou wert far away. 
Did I not see thee day by day, 
I might again be blithe and gay, 

For ever and for ever ! 



** For Ever and for Ever / '* 63 

Ah, no ! I could not bear the pain 

Of never seeing thee again ! 

I cling to thee with might and main, 

For ever and for ever ! 

Ah, leave me not 1 I love but thee I 
Blessing or curse, which e'er thou be, 
Oh ! be as t lou hast been to me, 

For ever and for ever ' 



64 



THE SECRET. 

THE words 1 dare not tell to thee, 
To Earth and Sky, to flow'r and tree, 
I softly breathe : the Summer's shine 
Has warm'd those whisper'd words of mine ; 
The Winter's snow, the Autumn's blast 
Have guess' d my secret as they pass'd ; 
The sparkling waves of tideless seas 
Have learnt it of the mui-muring breeze ; 
Yet all unchanged, — no Sumoier glow 
E'er thaw'd thy breast, oh ! Winter Snow ! 
At those warm words ! Oh ! sunny sea ! 
Thou art as thou wert wont to be ! 
Thy fickle wavelets kiss the shore, 
Then lose themselves for evermore ; 
The blast unheeding, hurries by, 
No meteor flashes through the sky. 
As, leaning from my casement's height, 
I tell my Secret to the Night. 



The Secret, 6$ 

Oh ! if, like Nature, all unmoved, 

ThoUy too, couldst learn how thou wert loved, 

If what thy heart may long have guess'd 

Raised no emotion in thy breast, 

But that felt by the wanton child 

Who breaks the toy on which it smiled ; 

If, having gain'd it, this poor prize 

Should seem the poorer in thine eyes, 

And grow more worthless worn and won, — 

Then am I right to breathe to none 

Save Earth and Sea, and Sky above me. 

The words, "I love thee, oh 1 Hove ihee/** 




66 



A THOUGHT. 

AT Dight, as lying half awake 
I muse upon my soul's desire. 
Out of the embers of the fire 
There seems to glide a glitt'ring snake. 

Sucking my life, with poisonous hate 
That serpent coils till morning's rise. 
And whispers, *' On //?> bosom lies 

A dearer form — a warmer weight." 

Oh ! if from coiling near my heart 
That viper would become my friend ! 
If its soft gliding tongue would end 

This aching wound from which I smart ; 

Then I would call it by some name, 

Love or Despair (which would be best?) 
And pressing it unto my breast 

Would fondle it, and make it tame I 



61 



ANOTHER THOUGHT. 

OH ! cling to me still ! Do not move ! 
Yet awhile press thy heart to my heart, 
And kiss into the Life of my Love 
Darling ! its Soul, which thou art ! 

Warm with the warmth of thy breath, 
And light with the ligh't of thine eyes. 

The life I would raise from the death 
We have died to the World and its ties ! 

Oh ! lend it the sound of thy voice, 
Oh ! lend it the charms of thy face, 

And dress the dear hope of my choice 
In thy garments of beauty and grace. 

So that, e'en should' st thou, Darling, depart, 
Should I nestle no more in thy breast, 

I may still to the heart of my heart 
Press the flow'r of the love thou hast blest I 



6S Another Thought. 

Ah ! then I could wander alone, 
Whilst bearing that burden of bliss, 

My Darling's yet doubly my own, 
Sweet echo of moments like this f 




69 



BURNING LETTERS. 

"O URN, burn, oh ! burning letters ! 

•^^ Alas ! and as ye fade avva}^, 
So may the love that once inspired you, 
So may the heart that once desired you, 
Before tlie breath of Time decay ! 

Oh ! words that have been warm'd with kisses ! 

Oh ! words that have been wet with tears ! 
Oh ! words that have been bless'd and cherish'd ! 
What will remain, when ye have perish'd, 

To light me in the coming years ? 

How shall I know my Darling loved me, 
,^ Oh ! by what sign, since kisses die ? 
Since hps grow silent, and cold faces 
Learn to forget the burning traces 
Of love which has been long put by ? 



/o Bur7ting Letters, 

Oh ! dear blue eyes ! that I have lived for I 
You look'd upon this written line ! 

Oh ! hands that traced these tender phrases ! 

Oh ! lips, that once could sing my praises, 
How fondly you have clung to mine 1 

How can I burn what He has written. 

What I so long have hidden here! 
How can I banish thus completely 
All these dear words, which sound so sweetly, 
All these sweet names, which are so dear ? 

Yet oh ! 'tis better they should burn now, 

Whilst His warm heart still beats for me, 
Than that, upon some dark to-morrow, 
I should gaze on them, in my sorrow. 

And say, "These words are warm — not He!*^ 

Ah ! though I would for ever cherish 
Each word that He could write or say, 

I would not that these letters only 

Should be the sad memorials lonely 
Of something that had pass'd away ! 



Burning Letters. y\ 

I would not read the words I loved so, 
Knowing their meaning gone and dead, 

A bitter mockery of Pleasure, 

The echo of a joyful measure 
After the melody had fled ! 

Then, whilst I still can hope He loves me, 

Then, whilst His love may last, I pray, 
As warm, as passionate, as this is, 
Go ! wet with tears, go ! warm with kisses, 
Into the flames, and fade away ! 



72 



HIS NAME. 

OH ! for some nevv-coin'd name by whicli to call 
him ! 
Oh ! for some name no other lips can give ! 
" Love " has been said by those who loved so coldly, 
*' Life" has been said by those who could not live ! 

"Darling," the sweetest name without a meaning, 
"Soul," often said to many a soulless thing, 

" Dearest," oft said to those who are not dearest, 
" Treasure," to what is not worth treasuring ! 

Oh ! I would have his new-found name mean "•Beauty^ 
And I would have his new-found name mean " Love^ 

Oh ! and his name must also mean " For ever" 
Whilst there is Earth beneath and Heav'n above 1 

And I would have it also mean " a Blessing,''* 
And I would have it also mean " a Shri?ie,'' 

And I would have it also mean " a Longing" 
And it must also mean that he is mine ! 



His Name. 73 

And I would have it also mean " my Idol,'' 
And I would have it also mean " my hreath^^^ 

Life of the very life I live and breathe from, 
So v/, that will even warm my very death ! 

VVheie shall I find this magic name to give him ? 

How shall I learn to spell this hidden word ? 
Oh ! shall I find it cradled on the zephyr ? 

Or lurking in the wood-notes of the bird ? 

Or, far away, where yonder pink horizon 

Lures on the Night with many a golden streak, 

There, whisper'd in the clear-toned notes of Angels, 
Oh ! some day, shall I find the name I seek ? 
4 



•^. 



pSsM 




74 



IDOLATRY. 

GOD, who alone knows whence we came, 
Made us half fire, and half of clay, 
Fire, which consumes the earth away, 
And earth, extinguishing the flame. 

Sometimes a flame, sometimes a clod, 
Earth-bound, or looking to the skies, 
So is my soul, but either wise. 

On earth, I look to you as God ! 

Above me, on His golden throne 
I seem to see, 'twixt darkness riven, 
The God oi All, in highest Heaven, 

A Being terrible — unknown — 

Holding the puppets. Life and Death, 
At times allowing them their will. 
Or bidding them, at times, be still, 

And chiding them, with awful breath ! 



Idolatry. 75 

To countless worlds and kingdoms more 
Hurling, from Hi? high hunting-grounds 
Blessings and curses, as to hounds 

Are flung the scraps they scramble for — 

Dealing new forms of Life and Death, 
Or unnamed gifts, unlike our own, 
New kinds of happiness, and woes unknown, 

Unguess'd by us, who crawl beneath ! ^ 

Giving His will of snow and hail 

To unknown continents, which lie 

(Shaming our poor geography), 
Out of our ken,— beyond our pale — 

Or lending summer-tide and light 

Or what to us seems bright and warm, 
To countless myriads, who swarm 

Beyond what we have called our sight. 

Crush'd by such thoughts, yet feeling here 

The sparks of some eternal fire 

Warm at the heart of my desire, 
Knowing some part of God is near — 



76 Idolatry' , 

(For 'midst this ill-match'd human crew. 
Some have, like me, pow'r to create 
The idols that they consecrate, 

Others seem Godlike, made like 7^//), 

And if this ray of heav'nly fire 
(Seen or imagined, felt or guess'd, 
Rising in mi?ze, or in your breast) 
Can cleanse my heart, and raise it higher- 
Far from this surging sea below, 
To Him who sent it me, this beam, 
Like an unutter'd pray'r, may seem, 
The worship of the God I know ; 

He (that great Pow'r by whom 'twas giv'n) 
May view with kind immortal eyes 
My soul's idolatry arise 

From you J my heav'n, to His high Heav'n. 

And as my flutt'ring pinions soar 

To those bright realms, where He may be. 
May pardon the sweet blasphemy 

Which makes me know and love Him more! 



Idolatry, yj 

And if, betore me, o'er the wave 

Of far Eternity's blue sea, 
My Idol's soul should float, and be 
Commingled with the God who gave; 

Then, lifting up to His high throne 
The voice of an adoring pray'r 
(Feeling my whole of Heav'n is there), 

God and my Idol will seem one I 




rs 



"OH! LET IT BE FOR LONG! 

IF it is not for ever, 
Oh ! let it be for long ! 
Oh t do not too lightly sever 
A link so dear and so strong ! 

Whilst I have pow'r to please thee, 
Whilst my poor presence charms, 

Never will I release thee. 

Thy prison shall be my arms ! 

But when the spell is over 

That bids thee linger nigh, 
Then fly to another and love her— 

She will love thee less than L 

And when thy soft lip presses 
Hers, who more dear may be, 

The ghosts of my dead caresses 
Will glide between her and thee I 



** Oh I let it J-? for long I " 79 

Then e'en if not for ever, 

Oil, let it be for long ! 
Oh ! do not too lightly sever 

A link so dear and so strong 1 



8o 



« I LIVE MY LIFE AWAY FROM THEE ! 

AS the sad sighing of the wind that blows 
Outside the windows that we firmly dose 
Against its breath, or as the distant sea 
Murmurs afar, and is not always heard 
But only when no louder sound is stirr'd, 
So, under all, through all, my being flows 
This song, " I live my life away from thee ! " 

What matter, if the years bring good or ill ? 
What can they hope, who ever hope on still 

Against all Hope ? And after Hope is dead ? 
Oh ! lost, lost Love ! Oh ! bitterer than this. 
Love I have known, — ^^Love I have loved to kiss 
Yet cannot hold ! Love, I have loved my fill 

Yet thirst for now 1 What shall I love instead ? 

Oh, Love ! oh. Life ! will it be always so. 
Through my whole life, and wheresoe'er I go? 

Oh 1 how so fair the sights that I may see 
What will they profit me ? Thou art not here I 
And ever, ever, ringing in mine ear 
I seem to hear, in accents sad and low, 

The words, " I live my life away from thee I " 



*' I Live my Life away from Thee i " 8/ 

VVhat takes liis place, that is worth harboring, 
Love the Immortal, Love, the only King 

Time, the great leveller, can ne'er dethrone ? 
What may we clasp, whose arms have closed on him 
Who can rule soul, and breath, and liL^, and limb ? 
What other leader is worth following ? 

Who can know other loves, him having known ? 

Oh ! in the sea of such a dear delight 
Let me be buried deep and out of sight ! 

Drown'd in the waters of that sweet warm sea, 
Clinging to lips, that living,' I may lose, 
Dying the happy death that 1 would choose 
Were it e'en given us to die aright ! 

But ah ! "I die my death away from thee ! " 

Because most seeming loves are calm and cold, 
Bought for a song and all as lightly sold, 

Let not the ones who know Love as he is 
Fling him away ! Of all that has been given. 
Love is the gift that brings us nearer Heaven 
Than any other gift the world can hold, 

And perfect Love is nearest perfect bliss. 

4* 



S2 ** I Live my Life av.^ ay from Thee T^ 

Then let me lose myself in his sweet ways, 
Or let me die, before these golden days 

Die, or the ]:)leasiire of them dies in me ! 
Oh ! sweet were death, if only, half in death, 
I could but silence that sad, sighing breath, 
That even then, I fear me, would upraise 

The wail, " I live and die away from thee i " 



83 

LOVE'S HOURS. 

THE hours that we have pass'd together 
Would scarcely make one golden year,* 
One golden year of sunny weather, 

'Midst other years of darkness drear, 
Though, spread upon the grass, our kisses. 
Would warm a space as broad as this is, 
From there to here ! 

Stolen from a world of death and sorrow, 
These happy hours of life and bliss 

Enough of heav'nly joy can borrow. 
That Angels (could they look at this) 

Would surely shroud their wond'ring faces 

To see how much of Heaven's traces 
Lurk'd in a kiss ! 

Oh ! some have said that e'en the fleetness 
Of these dear hours we call our own. 

May lend them something more of sweetness 
Than would have clung to them alone. 

Ah ! who can say ? For who has striven 

To guess which pathway led to Heaven — 
Once Heav'n is known ? 



84 Love\ Hours. 

Yet, should' St thou deem that they ^tjtz/^ guess' d it 

(The sages who have told us this), 
Then, would to Heav'n that I could test it, 

And cling for ever to thy kiss ! 
Then should I know if 'tis the fleetness 
Of these dear hours that makes their sweetness, 
Or whether their exceeding fleetness 
Flows from their own surpassing sweetness, 
Or what it is ! 



Sj 



NEW YEAR'S DAY. 

AS, in a week, alternate days 
Are bright with sun, or dark with storm, 
As some are chill, and some are yvavin 
With southern winds, and sunny rays — 

So, in men's lives, the changing years 
Bring mirth or sorrow, joy or pain. 
Some heralded with merry strain. 

Some with a passing bell, and tears ; 

But as those years, that now are gone 
With drooping heads, and folded wings, 
Into the dusk of bygone things, 

Resembled not this new-fled one — 

So, to the hearts that now are sad, 

May come new hopes of joy and peace, 
So, to the gay, fears lest they cease, 

Those joys that made the past year glad ! 



86 New Yea-'' ^ Day. 

To thee and me, the uncoin'd hour 

May bring a world of change unguess'd, 
(Save to that love, which in my breast 

Blooms like sunie fair immortal flow'r). 

For thee I wish each coming day 
May bring upon its bosom fair 
Some hidden blessing, and that Care 

At its light step may haste away 1 

And as for me, no greater bhss 
I ask of Time, than that he may 
Bring thy heart nearer mine each day, 

And thy lips nearer to my kiss ! 

Or if, to both, the coming years 
Are bound in equal share to bring 
New pleasures, and new sorrowing, 

Take thou the smiles, leave me the tears ! 



^7 



"AFTER LONG YEARS/' 



AS I stand 
standinj 



stand upon the pathway where I saw you 
ig last, 
I look vainly for your footprints, for so many more 

have pass'd ; 
They have press' d upon those dear ones, and have 

trodden them away, 
And these others, that came after, will be trodden out 

as they. 
Then I think " Life is a pathway, and the footprints 

are the yearc 
Where our sorrows mock our laughter, and our smiles 

efface our tears. 
As with living, so with loving, changing figures come 

and go, 
Sweeping out each other's footmarks with their flit- 
tings to and fro." 
Ah ! my Darling, then I wonder if at sunset, when you 

gaze 
O'e]- the country you have travel!' d, with its sad and 

pleasant ways, 



88 '* After Lng Years." 

Will you mark where fell my footsteps on your path- 

way for a space, 
Ere the coming feet of others shall have swept away 

their trace ? 
Can I think it ? dare I hope it ? when together li.ind 

in hand, 
For a little while we journey' d,— when our shadows 

on the sand 
Seem'd as one for but one moment, and alas ! then 

/wo again. 
Dare I hope that any record of my passing will 

remain ? 
Or, when in your mem'ry's mirror all your vanish'd 

loves shall pass. 
Will my shadow linger longer than those others in the 

glass ? 
With a look half sad, half mocking, — half in smiles 

and half in tears. 
Will my lips waft something to you like the kiss of 

bygone years ? 
When /vanish, who will follow? Will you loose or 

hold her fast ? 
Will she linger as I linger'd ? Will she pass as others 

pass'd ? 



" After long Years:' 85 

In the dim uncertain future, who shall come you may 

not guess, 
She may sweep me from your mem'ry with the trailing 

of her dress , 
You may lose me in her beauty, and forget me in her 

smile, 
And her breath may fade the picture that you cherish' d 

for a while. 
Hast'ning past those days of sunshine, when our livej 

seem'd merged in one, 
From the sunshine you may hurry to the presence of 

the sun, 
For it may be that the moments were but wasted 

loving me. 
Or only the foreshadowing of happier ones, to 

be! 
But ah ! if they love more fondly (future love or future 

wife). 
If my living was not loving — if my loving was not 

Life^ 
Oh! then drive my tremb'ling spirit from the thresh- 
old of your heart, 
Let me hear you taunt and mock me as I shudder^ 

and depart ! 



90 ** After long Years." 

T.et me see the eyes I worshipp'd on another shed 

their beams, 
And then let me fade forgotten to the chilly land ol 

dreams ! 

Ah ! I fain would drop the curtain on my wand'ring 

thoughts that range, 
For here nothing can be certain but the certainty of 

change ; 
Dare we promise, or un-promise, to remember or 

forget, 
Knowing all the changeling changes that the Future 

may beget ? 
But the Present is our own still, and I hug and hold 

it fast. 
As the sailor in a tempest fastens wildly to the mast ; 
For I know not, if I loose it, what my future fate 

may be ; 
Are the waters sweet or bitter of that dim unfathom'd 

sea? 
Till our "Never" is ''For ever," till "To-morrow" ia 

"To-day;" 
Til) all Future things are Present, till our Present 

fades away ; 



** After long Years'' 91 

Dare we plan or dare we promise ? All the voices of 

my mind 
Seem to say, "Beware and tremble, lest to-morrow be 

not kind ; 
Lest your Heaven be not Heaven — lest your Idol 

should depart;" 
But " 1 love you, -oh ! I love you T^ say the voices of 

my heart. 
Oh ! forsake me, and forget me, Oh ! be cruel and 

unkind; 
I forget it — 1 forgive it ! round your life my love is 

twined ; 
You have made my world a heaven, you have fill'd 

my soul with bliss. 
And the thirst of all my being is forgotten in your kiss ! 

Ah ! my Darling, on the pathway of the life that I 

have trod. 
Deeply printed are your footsteps, like the footsteps of 

a god; 
Treading out all fainter traces — seal'd for ever in the 

sand, 
Marking which were pleasant places in that unfor* 

gotten land I 



92 ^* After long Years.** 

And your shadow, not as others, will it fade away and 

pass, 
I shall stretch my arms towards it when I see it in th? 

glass ; 
I shall cling to it and kiss it, — I shall whisper to it, 

"Stay!" 
For your mem'ry shall be my love, \N\\^xi your love has 

pass'd away ; 
Oh ! then love me for a little, for I live but for your 

smile, 
Betwixt coming loves and going, let me linger for a 

while ! 
If you leave me can I blame you ? Shall I hunger for 

you less? 
No forsaking makes forgetting ! In my haunted lone- 
liness, 
I shall bow before the Power that reclaims what has 

been given, 
And live upon his memory who made the earth seem 

Heaven. 



G3 



**TOUT VIENT A QUI SAIT 
ATTENDRE." 

ALL hoped-for things will come to you 
Who have the strength to watch and wait,- 
Oiir longings spur the steeds of Fate, — 
This has Deen said by one who knew. 

She loved you when your heart was cold, 

Her eyes said "yes" when yours said "nay," 
You love, — her heart is turn'd away 

And beats no longer as of old ! 

He sang to her at early dawn, 

She turn'd away and would not hear ; 
She seeks him now, he is not near, 

She craves his love — his love is gone ! 

She pray'd for yours — you long for hers ; 

Hers lived last year, yours lives to-day ; 

His lived, butnowhas pass'd away, — 
And when she calls no answer stirs! 



94 ** Tout vient a qui salt attendre" 

How make it well for hnn — for her ? 
How clip the pinions of her hear*- 
To give to his the longer start ? 

For whom the rein ? —to whom the spur ? 

Ah, darling ! could we run this race 
(This race of loving), side by side, 
I should gain knowledge how to ride. 

To keep our hearts at equal pace ! 

But ah ! betwixt us sea and plain 
Are stretch' d afar in dreary line. 
And if your longing equals mine, 

Or if your loving wax or wane, 

I know not, for I cannot see, 

So far from mine your pathway lies, 
In vain I strain my weary eyes, 

Your life is lived away from me ! 

Ah ! rare, indeed, if heart to heart, 
If soul to soul can cling and turn, 
If love for love can breathe and burn 

When each is torn so far apart I 



'* Tout vient a o'li salt attendre. 



95 



Ah ! ** All things come to those who wait 
(I say these words to make me glad). 
But something answers soft and sat"^' 

"They comey but often come too iaie /^^ 




^ 



LOVE IN WINTER. 

THE ground is white with driven snow 
"How cold ! " say they who do not know 
For warmth and shelter where to go, 

(/knoAv ! /know !) 



Cling to me ! Love me ! Kiss me, so ! 
And wanii'd by Love's delicious glow 
Forget that there is Death or Snow ! 

Agaifi / ah ! so / 



\^mmi 



P7 



TO A PORTRAIT. 

I GAZE once more upon your pictured face. 
Oil ! you who made my weary life so glad I 
Till widi die light I see within your eyes 
My soul is madden' d, and I almost fear 
To look, whilst I am missing you alone, 
Upon this tempting mockery of Heaven ! 
Oh ! all too faithful likeness of my love ! 
He looks as when his arms embraced me last, 
When all the ardent azure of his eyes 
I.ook'd up towards me, melting into mine. 
Oh ! cruel picture ! passionate yet cold, 
Warm icy image of the one I love ! 
Hide out of sight those lips I cannot kiss, 
And press'd against the heart that beats for himy 
Sleep till the dawn. — Yet listen to my dreams 
(If that which has not voice may haply hear,) 
And when the gold that veils this eager glance 
Is warm and throbbing from my throbbing heai't, 



98 To a r.\' trait. 

Then will }0U learn the secrets of my soul 
And all my breast has hidden until now, 
For knowing that these speaking lips are mute 
I shall not fear to dream of Love and him. 
Good-night, dear Disappointment I all too like 
The one 1 love to make my slumber calm, 
Feeling the little golden chain that clasps 
Around the neck where once his arms have been 1 
Good-night, so like him, and yet so unlike, 
To let me kiss and cling to you alone ! 
Send me your kinder semblance in a dream, 
And let me pass away these hours of night 
With one so like to you, yet so unlike 1 




9^ 



IN YEARS TO COME. 

THE years to come may sweep away 
What now we prize, and turn to giay 
This curly dark brown hair, 
The years may dim these ardent eyes 
And turn to tender memories 
These moments that seem fair. 

Yet, if they leave me still your kiss, 
All else they steal I shall not miss, 

And folded in your arms 
The voice I love will sound as sweet 
As now, whikt kneeling at my feet 

You praise my youthful charms ! 

Our eyes may be too tired to read, 
But book or pen we shall not need, 

Since, echoing in each breast, 
Will linger still the tender truth, 
The history that in our youth 

We used to love the best ! 



IOC In Years to Come. 

Then bless these moments ere they fade, 
(For, Curly Head, this song is made 

For yon and only you !) 
And whilst your heart is young and light, 
And whilst your hair is brown and bright, 

And whilst your eyes are blue. 
Lay up a store for future hours 
Of fleeting love's departing flow*rs 

Which I will treasure too. 




lOI 



THE COQUETTE. 

ILJSTEN'D, scarcely knowing that I listen d, 
It nestled in my unsuspecting breast, 
I mark'd its plumage fair, and eyes that glisten' d, 

And smoothed with careless hand its golden cresl 
I call'd it now a curse, and now a blessing, 

I fondled it, I tortured, and caress' d, 
Till wearied of my teasing and caressing, 
It flew away, and yet I never guess' d — 

It flew away, and as I watch'd it flying. 
And saw its pinions fluttering above, 

I stretch' d my arms towards it, wildly crying, 
** Return ! and be again my captive dove ! " 

But ah ! its gentle voice made no replying. 
In vain to lure it back to me I strove — 

And all the voices of my heart are sighing, 
" Ah I it was Love ! " 



I02 



**HE WILL NOT COME!'* 

HE will not come ! The dim deserted street 
Is black and silent, save when now and then, 
The passing feet (alas !) of other men 
Deceive my aching heart and make it beat- 
He will not come ! 

Ah ! who is it that makes him break his tryst, 
And almost her poor heart who waits him now, 
Pressing against the window-pane the brow, 

And longing lips he has so often kiss'd ? 
He will not come ! 

He will not come ! and somewhere far away 
His ears may hear the echo of my moan, 
His eyes may see me watching here alone, 

His heart may guess my anguish as I say, 
" He will not come ! " 



He will not Come y 103 

"He will not come !" the words are like a knell, 
I drop the curtain that with hopeful hand 
I drew aside, yet linger where I stand, 

All loth to bid his memory farewell, 
He will not come 1 

He will not come ! ah ! absent one, good night ! 
Good night, sad street, good night, dear shelt'ring 

tree ! 
Good night ! good night ! to all that breathes of thee ; 
One more last look — good night to love and light ! 
He will not come,! 



IC4 



ON A GLOOMY DAY. 

T:IE year is past, and you and I 
No longer tread life's path togellxer^ 
And clouds are gathering in the sky, 
That seem'd so bright in ev'ry weathei*! 

For, folded to my darling's breast, 
I could not turn aside to know 

If winds were blowing east or west, 
Or clouds were dealing rain or snow ! 

I did not think of north or south, 

I needed not the angry skies. 
But breathed my zephyrs from his mouth, 

And saw my summer in his eyes I 

Oh ! near the heart that seem'd so warm, 
I did not feel this chiUing blast, 

And I have smiled at rain and storm, 
And mock'd the tempest as it past I 



On a Gloomy Day. 105 

But now, alas ! I ain alone, 

And I can see the drifting rain, 
And J have time to hear the moan 

Of tempests that are here again. 

Ah ! you who plant my life with flow*r3, 
And make all skies to seem so blue, 

Come back to me, and light the hours, 
That darken at the loss of you ! 

Ah ! could we end this weary strife 
And soul to soul, and heart to heart. 

Be each the sunshine of the life, 
That fate now bids us live apart, 

Then might the ceaseless torrents pour. 

And lightnings follow ev'ry kiss, 
1 should not fear the thunder's roar, 

Or dread a day as dark as this. 
5* 



106 



MY RECORDS. 

THE words that are spoken are soon forgotten, 
Music is played, and then dies in the air; 
But all these my children — my soul-begotten, 
Will live to me longer than tune or pray'r. 

The lines that are written and sealed and treasured 
May breathe of too much, or may seem too cold, 

Whilst these that are written and rliymed and measured 
Can tell far more tenderly all they have told. 

Ah ! and far more plainly than old tunes playing, 
And far more distinctly than pictured scroll, 

These words that the voice of my heart is saying 
Will bring my love of you back to my soul ! 

In days that fear neither loving nor losing, 
The days that are dawning or may not dawn, 

The breath of my songs will prevent from closing 
The wavering curtains that Time has drawn. 



My Records, \of 

And from ev'ry page, like a faded blossom, 

Whose colors are dimm'd, but whose fragrance 
clings, 

These written words that once lived in my bosom 
Will tell their old home of departed things ; 

And out of the Past, as I gaze in sorrow 
On records of love that was loved in vain. 

The dream of my youth in that dim to-morrow 
Will seem to come back to my arms again I 




lo8 



LONDON. 

I LIKE to think that when your love has waned 
London will still stand on, and be to me 
The noisy echo of your silent voice ! 
I like to ttiink of all the streets and squares 
Where once your shadow fell, or did not fall, 
When I have watch' d for it ! 

Ah ! woods and fields 
And forest-glades will tell me nuich of you ; 
But Nature changer more than these dim walls 
Into the which your memory seems built 
To gild them like a sunbeam till they fall ; 
And far away from all those sylvan scenes 
I cannot hear your laughter in the brook, 
Or trace your pathway in the broken fern, 
Whilst here a hundred dark and stone-paved ways 
Re-echo to my heart the step of Love ! 

I like it to be thus, and often think 

"Ah! here^ or there^ my heart will always beat 



London. 1 09 

A little faster, e'en in after years \ 
Here is a spot my eyes will never see 
Without in fancy seeing what they loved 
Above all else ! " 

Ah ! desolate to me 
Will then seem all these many-peopled slreet«i 
As those of ancient cities, hid away 
For thousand years beneath the lava-flood, 
And brought to light when all their life is fled 1 

I hardly dare to think. upon such days, 

Whilst yet the glamour of a rising sun 

Makes all this mist seem mingled pink and gold ; 

But now and then a shiv'ring passing form, 

And all the loveless looks of other men, 

These tell me that to many heavy hearts 

London is now a city of the dead, 

And they but wanderers amongst the tomb. 

To such as these I have not time to turn, 
(You make my life a hey-day of delight !) 
But, going to and fro, at morn and eve. 
Betwixt my Happiness and my Regret, 
I meet these paUid forms and pass them by. 



no London, 

Yet after, conscience-like, they haunt my dreams, 
And all the impotence of woman's life, 
With all its small desires, and vain resolves. 
And loves (may be as vain !) like a reproach 
These haunt me too ! 

Oh ! London, many-voiced ! 
Great city, where my love has lived and breathed, 
Live on, and reign the dusky Queen of Towns ! 
Had this hand strength, thine unabolish'd wrongs 
Had been redress' d, and all thy fever-fogs 
Dispersed, as with a fairy's magic wand ! 
Live on, dear city ! for my darling's sake. 
Live on, when this poor voice is mute to bless 
The heedless witness of my youth and love! 
And bright as all thy streets seem now to me 
Would they could be to all thy chequer' d world! 




Ill 



A DREAM OF THE SOUTH. 

OFTEN, when I am musing here alone, 
Slowly there fades from me this present scene, 
And other sights and sounds that once have 
been 
But are not now, crowd on me one by one. 

Sometimes the jing'ling voice of southern chimes 
Rung out from cupolas of painted tiles, 
Sometimes a black-eyed peasant woman smiles 

From some pink home, built as in warmer climes. 

Sometimes once more my spirit wanders through 
That garden with its fragrant orange-trees, 
And sees between the shining leaves of these 

Glimpses of tideless ocean, oh ! so blue. 

Or else, I see a patch of rich red earth, 

Four foot-prints planted in it, and a vine, 
Blue-coated muleteers, in stragg'ling line, 

Coming with sounds of sweet toned bells and mirth. 



112 A Dream of the South. 

A pahn-tree which its drooping feathers spreads 
Above the painted gateway of a town 
With quaint dark streets, and, passing up and down 

Women who knit, with loads upon their heads. 

What sentiment my heaving bosom fills 

At these remembrances, however small I 
The sharp black shadow of a sun-lit wall, 

The distant view of purple wooded hills ! 

The pointed aloe, in its green glazed pot, 

The red capp'd boatmen in the glitt'ring bay. 
The islands in the distance, far away, 

That it all look'd so bright I wonder not ! 

Yet was it all so bright ? I do not know ; 
Perhaps it only seeni'd so doubly fair 
Seen with four eyes, and ev'ry breath of air 

Breathed through four Hps, but ah ! it did seem so! 

These scenes a man and woman wander'd througli, 
Their shadows falling on the dusty plain 
Seem'd sometimes to be one, then two again, 

Then melted into one, alas ! then two I 



A Dream of the South, 113 

The peasants paused to watch them as they pass'd, 
And as the vines their sun-burnt fingers train 
Along the trellis-work of yellow cane, 

So did she cling to him, and hold him fast. 

They thought them bound by far more lawful ties 

Than those which join'd their lips and lock'd 

their hands, 
And made them wander thus in sunny lands 

Led by the light in one another's eyes I 

On, on, through all these flow'ry paths they roam 
Clinging together in the sunny glow. 
As only those can cling who seem to know 

They soon must part, — that here is not their home ! 

And as she clings, a voice she seems to hear 

Which says to her, "Alas! you still are two ! 
No words that you can say, — no deeds you 
do 

Can make you one ! Oh ! to be still more near 1 " 



1 14 A Dream of the South, 

Sometimes she wish'd some danger would Cf>me near, 
Some sudden lightning-flash or robber's knife 
Or something threatening to take his life, 

So that she might cry, "Spare him, but strike here f' 

Thus to have died, sometimes she thought were best 
Than to live on through changes and through years. 
Knowing, alas ! that all her future tears 

Could not be dried upon that loving breast ! 

So, with strange fancies and with strange desires, 
They wander on (so seems it in my dream. 
For it may be these beings only seem, 

Or that some oft-told tale my thought inspires), 

They wander on, until, anon, a cloud 

Seems to enfold them darkly over head ; 
Again they see the light — they are not dead, 

But somethiiig lies enveloped in a shroud 1 

Fm'ther apart, yet casting longing eyes 

On the dear country they have left behind, 
Still stretching hand to hand, with fingers twined, 

And sighing for the warmth of those lost skies, 



A Dream of the South. 1 1 5 

Thus are they now (or so they seem to be) ; 
Then slowly do I put the picture by, 
Whilst a strange chilly wind^ I know not why, 

Seems with its icy breath to blow on me : 

Longing for something that returns no more, 
The yearning after something left behind, 
Something that haply 1 might one day find 

Could I return again to that warm shore. 

These are the thoughts that animate my breast 
As these lost forms ajid scenes revive again. 
But what has been was sweet, and this dull pais 

Is not too dearly bought by all the rest ! 

Sometimes I see that woman of my dream, 

And wonder if her breath can fan to light 
That yet warm memory of past delight 

Which still within her bosoni seems to gleam. 

Sometimes I see the man that woman knew, 

Sometimes distinctly— sometimes dim to me ; 
Sometimes I say, "Ah ! yes, it must De hel" 

But ah ! it is not he ! (it is not you 1) 



1 16 A Dream of the South. 

And if that man and woman ever meet 
In after-mood, and after other years, 
What they will say between th-ir falling tears 

Will be, I think, '"Tis past, but it was sweet '" 




117 



SO LATE! 

MY happiness has come to me so late ; 
Had it come earlier, I had almost fear'd 
That long ere this the thunderclouds had near'd, 
Bearing some fatal bolt to compensate. 

For, like those Indians, who, when joy is near, 
Bow to the earth, and fear to be too glad. 
Lest their offended god should make them sad, 

So I, too bless'd by you, seem half to fear. 

But since my bliss has come to me so late, 
I hope the while I fear, postponing yet 
My dread anticipation of the debt. 

That Love has made me feel I owe to Fate, 



n8 



A REPROACH. 

OHOULD you and 1 live on, my own, 
*^ Till Time has made us old and gray, 

I, looking back, may haply say, 
** I marvel not that Time has flown 
So quickly ! Cruel one ! " (to j'ou), 
*' I blame you for those years that flew ! '* 

For had you never been to me 

What your dear lips have sworn you were, 
The slave of one who did not dare 

To own to you her slavery. 

And had your love ne'er brighten' d o'er 
The path that was so dark before : 

Then Time may be his wings had stay'd, 
And this mad clock had halted too, 
And both our lives had loiter'd through 

Their destined years of sun and shade ; 
But since you made the years so bright, 
I do not wonder at their flight ! 



A Reproach. 119 

Oh ! do not let them lag, my own, 
These strangely variable hours ! 
For then my life would miss the flow'rs 
The kisses of your mouth have sown : 
But do not make them fiy too fast 
These bUssful hours that cannot last. 

Oh ! would, my love, that I had pow'r, 
(Since Time has proved so false a friend, 
And bids these happy moments end), 

To break the clock and stay the hour. 
And keep it standing on for aye 
At this dear hour that steals away ! 

Oh! weeks and months and years that fly! 

Each blights some blossom 'midst the flow'rs 

With which youth crowns this life of ours. 
And fancies, faiths, and beauties die ; 

But oh 1 I pray the gods may give 

To you the will to let this Hve ! 

Oh ! what I mean by " this," my own, 
Is something you and I have felt, 
When both our souls have seem'd to melt 

Into that something few have known,; 



20 A Reproach. 

Too sacred this to write or rhyme, 
'Tvvas this that urged the wings of Time I 

Then let us love them now, my own, 

These days and nights of dear delight ! 

And may the thought that they were bright 
Cheer our sad lives when Love has flovvij, 

Though now I feel my heart must die, 

Before my love for you will fly ! 



•^^^^ 



121 



AH! REMEMBER. 

DARLING remember! Do not hide in darkness 
All the small nothings that recall me to you t 
The thousand little things, which but to glance at 
Must even force an alter'd heart to ponder, 
Oh ! do not cast the "You and I " for ever 
Out of the life that may be lived without me, 
Or, like a closed-up volume that is finish'd, 
Put not the story we have read together 
Upon the crowded shelf to lie forgotten ! 

Ah ! remember ! 



Remember all the days before we reach' d it 

(Our gate of heaven where we sat in sunshine), 

The eager hopeful days, the days of sorrow. 

The days of doubt, and all the days of longing, 

And that one day, a day that was predestined. 

And that one hour that bore within its bosom 

The sixty little moments of our madness. 

And one — the maddest, and, alas ! the fleetest — 1 

Ah 1 remember I 
6 



122 Ah ! B.emember, 

Ah ! yes, remember ! All the heath was golden, 

Ten thousand budding flowers told of spring- tide, 

And all my heart was warm with it and sadden' d, 

The sunlight splash'd the fern with yellow patches, 

The voices of the birds said "Love me ! Love n.el' 

I hsten'd to the birds, I watch'd the insects 

That flutter'd captive thro' the snowy mazes 

Of the white dress I wore to welcome summer, 

I watch'd, as in a dream, the home-returning 

Of miUion flies and bees all honey-laden ; 

And all the world seem'd warm with I^ove and 

Summer, — 
Waiting, I knew not why, but still for something, 
Longing, I knew not why, but still for some one, 
When on the garden gravel fell a footstep, 
And all my soul knew wherefore it was waiting, 
And both our hearts were warm with Love and 

Summer — ! 

Ah ! remember ! 

Ah ! then remember, when the day was fading. 
And all the southern sea was flush' d and rosy. 
We watched it hand in hand, all loth to lose it— 
The happy daylight that had shone upon us I 



AJiI Remember, , 123 

Half blinded with the glory of the sur.set, 
Its beauty drew our longing lips together, 
And we forgot the sunset in our kisses — ! 

Ah ! remember ! 

Remember too, those ev'nings in the Winter, 
When, by the glowing hearth, with candles shaded, 
I sat and waited, longing for your coining ! 
I did not wait you long, my own ! my darling ! 
For scarcely had the first clock finished striking 
When on the stair I heard your eager footstep. 
The door is closed upon us — we are silent, 
My warm lips strive to thaw the breath of Winter 
Upon your cheek, and kiss the chilly clusters 
Of the dear curly head upon my bosom. 
Oh ! when I am not near, in other winters, 
Or when, may be, another's arms enfold you. 

Ah ! remember ! 

Remember, too, the daybreak of our parting ; 
For, by the flickering light of future fires. 
One of our two poor hearts must watch in sadness. 
Which will it be ? Then, in the summer weather, 
The sun will seen* all mockery in his brightness, 
And all the many words one would iiave spoken, 



124 Ah! Remember. 

Will die unutter'd ; then by sunny fountains, 

And by the shores of that dear tideless ocean, 

A stricken soul will wander, heavy-hearted. 

Ah ! if it should be you, then in the twilight, 

Watching the sunset we have watch'd so often, 

Your shadow falling where ours fell together, 

Or when you see the open empty window, 

Where once these eyes of mine look'd out theii wel 

come, 
And tread again the pathway we ascended, 

Ah ! remember i 

Remember, ah ! but do not with a shudder. 

Turn from the memory. Oh ! let me linger 

A little in your life when mine is ended ! 

Not as a living thing, but as great rivers 

Sometimes conceal some secret undercurrent. 

So let me be to you. Of thoughts and fancies, 

Let me be still the queen — your soul my kingdom, 

My feeble sceptre, all your mem'ry clings to. 

Oh ! I would rule your soul by written letters, 

Or by the silent lips of painted pictures. 

By books that vre have read, by thoughts and actions^ 

By spoken words, and words that are unsjioken, 

(For maybe you will guess, should I be absent. 



Ah I Remember, 125 

The thought that would have flashed across my spirit 

At this or that.) In all the pleasant places, 

By tideless seas, in those blue skies unclouded, 

There would I like to hover near my darling, 

And hand in hand, unchanged, unseparated, 

Chng on through time and tide to some great ending. 

Or some beginning of some new to-morrow ! 

Ah ! remember ! 

Oh ! let us by united will, endeavor 

To open unimagined gates of meeting, 

And scale all former fencfes of division ! 

Ah ! well-explored, yet undiscover'd country. 

To those who Hnger still in doubt and darkness 

To some fond few, to whom Earth has been Heaven, 

The dim Siberia of their banishment ; 

But to so many more the hoped-for haven, 

Where all their batter'd barks find anchorage ; 

To meet you there, or feel some influence. 

To tell me you are present in the spirit. 

We needs must triumph over Death and distance; 

And that your after-eyes may see and know me, 

I say to you at ev'ry earthly parting, 

*'Ah ! remember 1" 



126 



BEFORE AND AFTER. - 

BEFORE I knew my Soul's delight 
How often have I watch'd alone 
The garden glades, tha*. blooming bright 

In all dieir summer glory shone ; 
The fern that feather' d fresh and green, 

The tall ox- daisies in the grass, 
The fragrant-smelling eglantine, 

And only sigh'd, "Alas ! alas ! 
Oh ! wasted hours ! oh, wasted days ! 
My heart is sadden' d as I gaze ! '* 

Even the shadow of a bird 

Upon the daisy-spangled lawn 
Each hidden pulse within me stirr'd ; 

The dewy freshness of the dawn 
Seem'd profitless and good for naught ; 

And when the soft warm day had waned, 
Its beauty grieved me, for I thought, 

'* To-day is lost, and what is gain'd? 
Oh ! wasted hours ! oh ! wasted days ! 
My heart is sadden' d as I gaze !" 



Before and After, 1 27 

Oh ! days that fled I know not how ! 

So slow, and yet withal, so fleet ! 
The bud seem'd scarcely on the bough, 

Scarcely the rose's breast was sweet, 
Before the leaves grew crisp and sere, 

And all the earth was damp and chill, 
Whilst Autumn winds seem'd ev'rywhere 

To make the same sad murmur still — 
*' Oh ! wasted hours ! oh ! wasted days I 
My heart is sadden' d as I gaze !" 



Each thing of beauty seem'd to me 

A mockery, a vain deceit. 
The promise of some joy to be 

That never would be mine to meet, 
Or else the echo of a strain 

Of some such music as mine ears 
Had long'd and listen'd for in vain 

Through all the waiting weary years— 
" Oh ! wasted years ! oh ! wasted days I 
^y heart is sadden'd as I gaze ! " 



128 Before a7id After. 

Yet when at Christmas-tide the bells 

Rang mournful joy-proclaiming chimes, 
They sounded like the fun'ral knelb 

Of what seem'd almost happy times. 
And as I thought "Another year, 

Another wasted year has flown," 
A hundred mocking voices near 

Echo'd from city spires the moan, 
" Oh ! wasted years ! oh ! wasted days ! 
My heart is sadden' d as I gaze ! " 



But even as I mused and dreani'd 

The old life faded quite away, 
And all the golden sunlight stream'd 

And warm'd my being with its ray I 
Ah ! then for me the garden glow'd, 

Ah ! then for me a silv'ry voice 
Sang in the river as it flow'd, 

And whisper' d to my heart '^ Rejoices 
The days of Death are gone and past, 
And Life and Love are here at last \ " 



Before and After, 129 

Ah ! sailing now on sunny seas 

With such a new and dear deHght 
My heart grDws light again, and these 

(The days of sadness and of night,) 
Seem far behind our golden sails, 

Fill'd with the breath of Love's sweet voice, 
Whilst over sea-bound hills and vales 

I hear the echo'd words, '^ Rejoice, 
The days of Death are gone and past. 
And Life and Love are here at last ! " 



Oh ! when you read the words I sing 

(Should those blue eyes but glance them o'er,) 
Your heart will guess what hidden spring 

Inspired my simple metaphor; 
And you will know who spread the sail, 

Who made the world so bright to glow, 
And ah 1 in pity do not fail 

Dear Love, to try and keep it so ! 
Then will the days of Death be past, 
And Life and Love be here at last! 
6* 



130 



ALONE AT THE TRYST. 

HERE, in the home of newly vanish'd love, 
A thousand things recall my heart's delight, 
A thousand silent witnesses unite 
To say, "'Twas here we saw your kisses prove 

The waneless love of noonday and of night 
That warms your being ! " All around the air 
Seems freighted with those dear delights that were, 

And now are past. The clock, that seems to move 
Unlike the headlong time-piece of those days. 
Ticks with a sad distinctness, and it says 

To my lone heart, "I am the self-same clock 
Whose veering hands your own would once have stay'd, 

As, gazing at me wond'ring and aghast 

To think that happy moments flew so fast, 
You wrapp'd your cloak around you, half afraid, 

And vanish'd through yon door, whereon your knock 
Seem'd scarcely to have died — so quick I pass'd 

From minute unto quarter, racing on 
Fiom half to whole, until I struck at last 

The doom of that sweet hour that now is gone !" 



Alone at llu Tryst. 1 3 ; 

Ah ! with how sad a heart I wander here, 

From room to room, that seem so full of him, 
Half thinking, as the Autumn light grows dim, 

That he is only late, and must be near ! 
Or that my longing over land and sea 
Will reach my love, and bring him back to me ! 

Vain foolish hope ! and yet I wait and wait, 

Foolish and vain though my poor hope may be ; 

The sad slow clock has told me it is late. 
And in my heart of hearts alas ! I know 

That far away, with hills and vales between 

My darling cannot feel, and has not seen 
My little flitting shadow come and go 

And wait and watch and weep for what has been 1 

Oh ! "far away ! " our journeys lie apart ; 

Yet here, for some few hours in some short year<» 
We mingle for awhile our hopes and fears, 

And cling together straining heart to heart. 
Ah ! in a life of bitterness and tears 

How do I treasure this — its happiest part ! 
Come back to me, dear Idol ! for the shrine 
Seems sad without you, and the bird will pme 



132 Alone at the Tryst, 

In the lone nest all empty of her mate ! 

Come, where around all seems to watch and wait, 

Where even now the very walls and floors 
Hope for your shadow and expect your tread, 
Come to my longing breast and rest your head, 

And shut the cold world out with these dear doors 1 




133 



CALM AND STORM. 

IT is not often that we really love : 
We have our frenzies and our ecstasies, 
But that sweet tenderness when storms are past; 
Or when, becalmed, we wait the hour of storm, 
This, this is little cared for here on earth ! 



Upon thy breast my head is resting now, 
And, shaken by the throb of that dear heart, 
I cannot sleep, but thinking, half-awake, 
I wonder which is sweetest, calm or storm. 
And, answering to my fickle woman's heart, 
A thousand sad soft voices murmur " Calm V 
Ah ! trust me not, my lips are too near thine; 
And ere thy heart is quiet, like that bird 
That whirls and eddies o^er foaming seas, 
My traitor soul is longing for the storm I 



134 



"THE LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS." 

CALL them not past, though those bright days arc 
ended, 

And in the sea those autumn suns have set ; 
Woven into my life they are, and blended 

With all its sunshine, and I follow yet 
In fancy those dear paths we two ascended ; 

And though these days are darken' d by regret, 
It is not for a dead thing I am sighing : 

I weep no vafiish' d ]oys, for in my heart, 
Living for ever to me, underlying 

The current of the life I live apart 
From what seems more than life, there, there, undying, 

Is what thou wert to me^ and what thou art ! 

And to these sunless days that thought gives glory, 
And warm to this my heart, that would wax cold 

Without its magic, do I tell the story 

Of all that (had they voices) might unfold 

Those s]3reading beech-trees and those oak-treei 
hoary. 
Beneath whose tangled branches, uncontrolled 



'* The Light of Other Daysr 135 

We wander*d hand in hand, and join'd to living 

The happiness of living in the rays 
Of our hearts' sun. Ah ! stern and unforgiving 

And cold may be this world and all its ways ; 
Yet in the midst of present tears and striving 

Shines like a star the light of those dear days. 

Well were they worth these moments of my sorrow, 
And all the thorny paths through which we went 

To reach our Heaven ; and I strive to borrow 
Some glimmer of the radiance they lent, 

To light me now, so that on this, the morrow, 
Looking towards them, I can feel content ! 




136 



MY KING. 

OF this poor heart you ask me who is Kir/g, 
Since to your eyes so many seem to reign ; 
Alas ! the kingdom is so small a thing 

That, like the unaccepted throne of Spain,* 
Mothought my little crown had gone unclaim'd, 
Or scorn'd maybe, if J had ever named 

Who was the King. 

Both old and young pretenders oft have strove 
To plant their alien banners, and be King ; 

And all the hot artillery of love, * 

With mad acclaim, has echo'd, thundering 

Its perilous appeal through all my heart, 

But of that stronghold, or its meanest part, 
They were not King. 

Yet on that hidden throne a King is set, 

A tyrant, a more arbitrary king 
Than erst was Tudor or Plantagenet, 

And to this rebel kingdom did he bring 
* 1870. 



My King. 137 

Such dear destruction, such sweet sophistry, 
That if it could it would not now be free 

From such a King. 

At first It would not own his tender sway 
And feared to call the dear usurper king, 

But all its trusted bulwarks broke away, 

Where they had seem'd the strongest, and the ring 

Of ** Victory ! " resounded through the air 

Before the vanquish'd knew the foe was there, — 
And he was King 1 



Oh ! trebly crown'd as with a papal crown ! 

Of heart and soul and all my senses King ! 
Giver of all the bliss my life has known ! 

Sharer of all worth my remembering I 
Creator of so many thoughts and schemes, 
Of this my bond slave heart and all its dreams 
You are the King ! 






JS^ 



COMPENSATION. 

TO those who may have fail'd to gain 
The treasure that I prize to-day, 
(Lest they should envy me), I say 
How long I strove for it in vain. 

How dark and dreary were the years 

(Lest they should deem my life all bliss), 
Before at last I won the kiss 

That dried the fountain of my tears. 

How months and weeks and days pass'd by, 
And how the lonely loveless night 
Seem'd but to come to say that light 

Had faded from the sullen sky. 

How sleep seem'd sent me to forget, 
And how my dreaming was a dread, 
How daylight dawn'd and darkness fled 

As sadly as the daylight set. 



Compensation. 139 

And how a dull and weary ache, 

The thought that nothing good could be, 
Came like a death-chill over me 

When first I saw the morning break. 

And then there came the dismal round 
Of all the fruitless barren hours 
Scatter'd hke handfuls of fresh flow'rs 

That wither wasted on the ground. 

Alas ! the Winter's dreary gloom, • 

The aimless yearnings of the Spring ! 
The Autumn's silent withering, 

And all the blinding summer bloom I 

Long years of hopelessness, and how 

Unsunn'd, unnourish'd save by tears, 
My heart beat on thro' all the years 

That, thanks to you, are brighten'd now ! 

Yet^ lest to those whose lives have been 

Less sad, and now may seem less bright, 
My life should hold too much delight, 

Too much of what they have not seen. 



140 



Compensation, 



And lest they envy me the glow 

Of sunshine that my sun has shed 
Upon a path they may not tread, 

I say " It was not always so : " 

That they may know these golden years 

Which Love has made to seem so bright, 
Were heralded by darkest night 

And earned in bitterness and tears. 




HI 



LANCELOT AND GUINEVERE. 

"Oh ! read to me some other lay," 
She cried to one about to read ; 

*' I love to hear of tourney gay, 
Of feats of arms and daring deed, 

*'Yet read to-day some simple rhyme, 
Or else some tender ballad sing, 

And let me hear another time 

The Idylls of the blameless king." 

Her husband did not seem to hear, 
Or, if he heard, he heeded not. 

And so he read of Guinevere 
And of her love for Lancelot. 

He read how first the rumor grew, 
Unheard by him it harm'd the most, 

And how the courtiers link'd their two 
Unwedded names in song and toast ; 



142 Lancelot atiJ Guinevere, 

And how, '' love-loyal " to her will, 

The great knight sought within her eyes 

Her wishes when her lips were still, 
Ere striving for the diamond prize. 

And how he did not read them right — 
The lady sadden' d at each word : 

"Alas," she sigh'd, "how true the knight ! 
How fair the queen ! how great her lord ! " 

She turn'd away and sigh'd anew 
As in each act his love was seen. 

And thought, " Ah ! I had loved him too 
Were he my knight, were I his queen." 

But when the poet told of how 
His guilty love had darken'd o'er, 

And marr'd the beauty of his brow 

(Such love makes some men smile the more), 

And how he did not lightly wear 

The prize of which he made no boast, 

'Twas then she deem'd him doubly fair, 
*Twas then she felt she loved him most 



Lancelot and Guinevete, 143 

And when she heard of fair Elaine, 
** Alas ! it seemeth hard," she sigh'd, 

"That he should letjier love in vain 
The hopeless love whereof she died. 

** But ah ! how loyal to his queen ! 

How warm the heart that seem'd so cold I 
Hath ever knight so faithful been 

Since he of whom the poet told ? " 

And when she heard how Elaine died, 

And floated to him on her bier, 
She turn'd away her head to hide 

The falling of a passing tear. 

But when Sir Lancelot had sought 

The little reedy river cove, 
And, all remorseful, sigh'd and thought 

The maiden's was the tend'rer love ; 

Then throbb'd the heart of her who heard, 

As though the spirit of the queen 
Wilhin her bosom lived and stirr'd, 

And made of her what she had been : 



144 Lancelot and Guinevere. 

And wildly to herself she said, 

*'The woman's love ! the queen's ! ni)- own I 
Ah ! could he covet in its stead 

What but a love-sick girl has shown ? 

" The sneering word, the tarnish'd name, 
The galling mask for him she bore ; 

She heeded not her loss of fame. 

And risk'd the queenly crown she wore : 

"For him she did not scorn to lie 
To one whose very life was truth ; 

She put her robes and sceptre by, 

And crown'd him king of all her youth. 

" That simple maiden could but prove 
The love she bore him by her death ; 

Give me to live for him I love, 

To yield him heart and soul and breath I 

" Give me the risk, the shame, the sin, 
The love that can have nought to gain, 

Save the foiid hope one day to win 
A dearer link to ciasp the chain 1 



Lancelot and Guinevere. I45 

** But read no more ! " she cried aloud ; 

Her. cheek was flush'd and wild her eye, 
Wliilst on hei brow the gath'ring cloud 

Told of the tempest passing by. 

"Ah ! read no more," she said again, 
"My ears are weary of the sound !" 

And half in anger, half in pain, 

She flung the book upon the ground. 

"Alas, for lawless love ! " she sigh'd, 

" I share the cross 'of Guinevere ; 
I jke her my guilty secret hide, 

Like her I earn the doom I fear. 

" To see one day his passion fade, 
Or hear him say mine pales beside 

The love of some such lily maid 
As she who floated down the tide. 

*' For me to steel my heart at need, 

Nor let that live that makes love's curse, 

Then can I all unheeding read 
The tender tales of poet's verse." 
7 



14^ Lancelot and Guinevere, 

She bent her head and seem'd to pray, 
Then, starting, listen'd to a sound, 

Push'd back her hair, and dashM away 
The tears in which her eyes were drown'd. 

With manth'ng cheeks and hps apart, 
She waits and strains her anxious sight; 

And all the pulses of her heart 

Seem quicken' d by some near delight. 

Her lord stepp'd down upon the grass 
And vanish' d in the twilight dim ; 

Her guardian angel moan'd " Alas ! 
Alas for her ! alas for him ! " 

Alas ! for erring woman's pray'r ! 

Reader and book alike forgot ; 
She trembles, hearing on the stair 

The coming step of Lancelot. 






147 



NOW. 



^"r*OYS, tears, and kisses — then a few more tears— 

-* (This is the burden of the changing years), 
And after (should our journey reach as far), 
The land where neither toys nor kisses are; 
And further still, the loveless, listless years, 
Too cold for kissing and too tired for tears, 
(Ah ! spare me these !) and then — a dawning Day 
Or closing Night ? Alas ! we cannot say I 



I. 

My toys are broken now, and all put by, — 
My Queen of Dolls is now a Queen no more,- 
Or lost, or litter'd on the dusty floor 

In some forsaken lumber-room they lie. 

2. 

My toys are gone, but still I have my tears^ 
{These linger with us for a longer while,) 
Yet whilst I weep, I know that T can smile, 

I smile and weep, may be, some few short years. 



148 Now. 

3- 

I have reach' d kissing — here my steps are slow, 
So pleasant seems the pathway with its flow' r? ^ 
A few more kisses for a few more hours, 

And then I reach a land I do not know ! 

4- 

For I have only travell'd yet so far 

As where the roses and the kisses cling, 
And I can only dream of these, and sing 

Of such as these, well knowing what they are I 

5. 

Anon, my heart may warm to colder things. 
But now I mark with half unconscious eye 
The current of events that rushes by, 

Upraising Empires and dethroning Kings. 

6. 

Oh ! for those days when this our path is rough 
With stones and briars, that now is green with spring 
Let us not coin ourselves a thought to sting — 

The thought, " Alas 1 we did not kiss enough," 



Now. 149 

7. 
Oh! linger long, ye glad unfetter'd hours! 

How far the sun-glow spreads I cannot say, 

I feel it warm within my heart to-day, 
I see the pathway blinded with its flow'rs ! 

8. 

Then let me sing the glories of these days, 
Let those who follow me, or go before. 
Tell of the country they are passing o'er, 

I know not now the pleasure of their ways I 

9- 

Oh ! sweet green garden in this life of man ! 

Oh Youth ! Oh Love ! Ah ! hasten not away ; 

Ye pass before my lips can murmur "Stay I" 
A star," set in the life-time of a span I 

10. 

Yes, almost ere this ink of mine is dry, 

Whilst yet this scroll seems warmer from mj iiArtiS 

The restless atoms of appointed sand 
Ha\ e trembled through the hour-glass and w'e die 1 



1 50 Now, 

II. 

These written words, these thoughts of Life and Deaths 
These few sad rhymes I write to Love and you, — 
These all, — what are they ? and my loving too ? 

A little incense rising like a breath ! 

» 12. 

Yet, take it ! Ah ! and if in after years 

This page, then long forgotten, meets your eye. 
Think once on one, before you lay it by, 

Who gave you all her kisses and her tears ! 

13- 
Love of the life that you have bless'd to-day I 

Love of the life that I may have to live ! 

Take all so poor a worshipper can give, — 
The changing dreams I dream — the pray'rs I pray: 

14. 

And give to me^ 'ere yet these moments -die, 
The bliss of half a death beneath thy kiss ! 
Again, and yet again I Like this— and this / 

Once morCy my darling I ere I say Goodbye I 

THE END. 



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